Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta and 22 others defended open weights. Anthropic and OpenAI didn’t sign.

The New Stack · 2 months ago · 52 ● 75 sources

Twenty-five major technology companies including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta signed a statement defending open-weight AI models and the practice of distillation, while Anthropic and OpenAI declined to sign amid White House pressure over Chinese AI companies allegedly stealing American capabilities. The cost difference is substantial: Moonshot's Kimi K3 produces the same code quality as Anthropic's Claude for about one-third the price, though four times slower, driving developers toward cheaper Chinese models that now account for over 30% of token usage on some platforms. The dispute reveals an industry split between closed-model companies pushing for restrictions and infrastructure providers backing open weights, with real consequences for startups that cannot afford expensive proprietary APIs.