Hugging Face CEO vows open-source fight after Huang exit

Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue on Thursday called Jensen Huang's resignation from Nvidia ↘ 4.43% a "really sad day." He said the open-source AI platform would keep pushing its mission, even though its pending $12.9 billion sale to the chipmaker now has a new leader on the buying side.

"This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened. It's a really sad day! But I want to make one thing clear: we'll keep fighting for open-source AI, harder than ever. This is too important to slow down now. Let's go!" Delangue wrote on X, TechCrunch reported. The deal is still scheduled to close in the first half of 2027. Hugging Face did not answer questions about the deal's status or whether it had spoken with Nvidia's interim CEO, according to TechCrunch.techcrunch.com

A sudden leadership change

Nvidia's board announced Thursday that Huang had resigned as president, CEO and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping her finance role, Nvidia said. The company also named former Synopsys ↗ 0.02% CEO Harvey Jones as its first-ever board chair, Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↗ 0.59% reported.investor.nvidia.com+1

Huang left after revelations that he had extramarital affairs with an executive who reported to him and with a woman U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was spying for China, according to The New York Times ↘ 0.85%. The Associated Press noted that Nvidia had no succession plan. Nvidia shares fell more than 13% at Thursday's open, Euronews reported.apnews.com+2

The deal's champion is gone

Huang personally announced the Hugging Face acquisition in September. In a blog post, he wrote that the platform would "remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem," CNBC Comcast Corporation ↗ 0.08% reported. At the time, Delangue said Hugging Face had approached Huang over the summer about a deal, "and a few weeks later, here we are," according to CNBC. It is Nvidia's second-largest acquisition, behind its $20 billion deal for Groq's assets in December 2025, TechCrunch noted.cnbc.com+1

The deal already faced scrutiny before Huang left. After it was announced, the U.S. Department of Justice began asking how it would affect competition in AI, because Nvidia would control a major distribution channel for AI models, TechCrunch wrote, citing Reuters.techcrunch.com

Open-source advocacy in question

Huang was one of the industry's most vocal backers of open-weight models. In July, his first post on X shared a policy letter signed by 25 companies, including Microsoft ↗ 0.67%, Meta ↘ 0.68%, IBM International Business Machines Corporation ↘ 0.74% and Palantir ↘ 0.02%. The letter urged Washington not to over-restrict open models, TechCrunch reported. "Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty," Huang wrote.techcrunch.com

Delangue's post suggests open-source advocates are worried about how Nvidia will treat the space without Huang, TechCrunch observed. The interim leader now steering the company comes from finance, not the technology roadmap, The Next Web pointed out.thenextweb.com+1