A coalition of roughly 25 tech giants is telling Washington to keep its hands off open AI models, drawing parallels to the open-source software fights of the 1980s.
Google has thrown its weight behind an open letter urging US policymakers not to restrict open-weight AI models, joining a growing chorus of tech heavyweights that includes OpenAI and xAI. The twist: none of those three companies have actually signed the thing yet.
The letter, titled “Open Weights and American AI Leadership” and dated July 24, 2026, has attracted roughly 25 signatories so far. Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, Hugging Face, a16z, Mistral, Dell, and IBM are among the names that have put pen to paper. Google, OpenAI, and xAI have expressed public support but remain absent from the official signatory list.
What the letter actually says #
The core argument is straightforward: open-weight AI models, where companies release model parameters publicly so others can build on them, are good for America. The letter contends that clamping down on these models prematurely would hand a competitive advantage to rivals, particularly China.
It draws a direct parallel to the open-source software movement of the 1980s. Back then, critics warned that freely sharing code would be a security disaster. Instead, open-source software became the backbone of the modern internet.
The letter makes several specific claims about why open weights matter. It argues they enhance access to technology for smaller companies and researchers. They stimulate competition by lowering barriers to entry. And perhaps most importantly, they improve security through greater transparency and community audits, the logic being that thousands of independent researchers poking at a model will find vulnerabilities faster than any internal security team.
The competitive pressure from China looms large in the letter’s framing. Chinese models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 represent a real and advancing threat to American AI dominance.
The signatory list tells its own story #
The roughly 25 signatories span the entire AI supply chain, from chip makers like Nvidia to cloud infrastructure providers like Dell and IBM, to AI-native companies like Hugging Face and Mistral.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang went so far as to share the letter in what was reportedly his first-ever post on X. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also commended the initiative.
The gap between “supporting” and “signing” is worth noting. Google, OpenAI, and xAI may have legitimate logistical reasons for the delay, or they may be hedging. Supporting a letter verbally gives you the PR benefit of alignment with the open community without the binding commitment of your logo on a public document.
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