Jensen Huang responds to Kimi's impact: the market misunderstands again, free AI benefits chip demand

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated in an exclusive interview with Axios on Tuesday that American companies "absolutely" should be allowed to use Chinese open-source AI models, directly challenging the Trump administration and some American AI labs' blockade policies.

Huang believes that the market's panic over Kimi K3 is a misreading, similar to the sell-off triggered by DeepSeek in early 2025: cheaper open-source models will expand the AI audience and increase, rather than decrease, the demand for chips, data centers, and computing power. "Free AI is good for hardware, good for chips, good for data centers." He also refuted the notion that open-source models pose security risks, claiming that open-source is actually safer because external researchers can examine the models, expose vulnerabilities, and build defenses, while calling for Anthropic to open its Claude Mythos model to "everyone."

Huang rejected the narrative that "China will defeat American companies," arguing that the AI race has no finish line and that China and the U.S. will coexist in the long term. Hours after the interview, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that the government is reviewing whether Chinese AI models are stealing intellectual property and considering sanctions. Huang responded that knowledge distillation is the foundation of intelligence and that accountability should be directed at violations rather than the models themselves.