Fifty rivals agree on one thing. Buy it?

Question

July 2026: Nvidia's CEO posts an open letter — his first post ever — asking Washington not to restrict open models. Within days, fifty-plus companies sign it, including sworn rivals OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Their boldest claim: openness is the SAFER path, because a locked-up model can fail in ways nobody outside the vault can see. The two biggest names missing: Amazon — and Anthropic, the lab loudest about AI safety.

Accepted Answer

Both readings are true at once. The letter's best card: open-source software already proved that many eyes find flaws faster than one vault does. The skeptic's best card: every signer profits if you believe them — starting with the chipmaker who wrote it, who sells the shovels either way. Google's AI chief signed while noting its free Gemma models have been downloaded 300 million times. Its crown-jewel Gemini models remain, of course, in the vault. (45% of Americans answer "They're right" — floor est.)