Nvidia to Invest billions in Poolside partnership to build open-source AI models

Nvidia disclosed a plan to spend billions on a partnership with the AI startup Poolside, targeting the creation of open-weight models that could compete with leading closed-source systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. The agreement includes a $1 billion investment in Poolside and a $6 billion licensing fee, plus the recruitment of many of Poolside’s top engineers, with more than 100 of its staff slated to work on Nvidia’s Nemotron initiative.

Company officials say open models are cheaper and more customizable, and that broader access makes the technology safer through increased scrutiny. This strategy aligns with Nvidia’s recent efforts, including the Open Secure AI Alliance and the Nemotron Coalition, which bring together firms like Mistral, Thinking Machine Labs and Perplexity to share data and compute resources. Nvidia hopes the collaboration will help it match the most advanced AI models emerging from both the United States and China, even as some large AI labs design their own chips, potentially creating direct competition.