The departure of Jensen Huang from Nvidia’s leadership has prompted a reaction from Clément Delangue, the French co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face. As the American manufacturer is set to acquire this artificial intelligence model platform for $12.93 billion, the entrepreneur reaffirms his commitment to open source AI, whose models are open. This stance comes amid uncertainty over Nvidia’s strategy, whose historic leader actively championed these models.
The resignation of Jensen Huang, made official on November 12, 2026, raises questions about the future of partnerships undertaken by Nvidia. Among the first reactions is that of Clément Delangue, a French entrepreneur based in the United States and co-founder of Hugging Face, a platform that has become essential in the distribution of artificial intelligence models.
“It’s a really sad day! But I want to be clear on one point: we will continue to fight for open source AI, stronger than ever. It’s too important to slow down now,” the executive wrote on X. This statement comes just over two months after the announcement of his company’s acquisition by the American GPU manufacturer, those graphics processors used for computing.
Founded in 2016 by the Frenchmen Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face holds a strategic place in the global AI ecosystem. Although based in the United States, the company maintains close ties with the French tech community. Its acquisition by Nvidia thus raises questions that go beyond the American market alone.
A nearly $13 billion acquisition still pending
Announced on September 3, the deal values Hugging Face at $12.93 billion. It includes approximately $11.9 billion in cash for shareholders, as well as up to $1 billion in retention stock for employees. This is the second-largest acquisition in Nvidia’s history, after the purchase of Groq’s assets for $20 billion in December 2025.
According to Jensen Huang, it was Hugging Face that approached Nvidia, after having turned down a $500 million investment offer in 2025. According to figures released by Nvidia in September 2026, the platform brings together over 18 million developers, hosts more than three million artificial intelligence models, 500,000 datasets, and one million applications. Over 200,000 companies also use it.
Jensen Huang had personally committed to preserving the openness of the platform. “Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem. Nvidia computing will not be required to develop on or deploy to Hugging Face,” he stated.
Nvidia’s commitment to open source questioned
Jensen Huang’s departure could raise questions about the continuity of this strategy. In July 2026, he had supported an open letter signed by 25 tech companies and organizations, calling on Washington to avoid premature restrictions on open-weight AI models. This initiative notably brought together Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, IBM, and Hugging Face.
This direction also presented an economic interest for Nvidia. By facilitating access to open models, the manufacturer contributes to the development of applications requiring more computing power.
The deal, however, is under regulatory review. The U.S. Department of Justice has begun gathering information on its potential consequences for competition. The acquisition is still expected in the first half of 2027, subject to necessary approvals.
A stake for the French AI ecosystem
For Clément Delangue, defending open models goes beyond Hugging Face’s commercial interests. At the time of the acquisition announcement, he had suggested the deal could benefit the European tech ecosystem, mentioning future investments by Hugging Face founders and employees, as well as the possibility of a strengthened Nvidia presence in France and Europe.
For European companies, the stake involves the ability to develop, customize, and deploy models on their own infrastructure, without depending exclusively on proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs). Clément Delangue’s reaction underscores the importance placed on these guarantees, whose maintenance will, according to the source, be a test for the American manufacturer’s new leadership.
At this stage, Nvidia has not announced any changes to the terms of the acquisition or its commitments to Hugging Face.
