Sources: OpenAI and Anthropic quietly lobby Washington regulators to restrict open-source AI models, even as Sam Altman publicly says he supports open source AI

Anthropic and OpenAI are clashing with the rest of the tech industry over whether “open-source” models from China should be freely available or restricted.

New York Times 2026-07-26

Context & Ripple Effects

The lobbying push extends OpenAI’s earlier call to bar PRC-produced models and equipment on security and privacy grounds, but now places OpenAI and Anthropic in a visible policy conflict with other technology companies over availability of Chinese open-source models.

It also follows the labs’ participation in Frontier Model Forum information-sharing on adversarial distillation, showing how coordination around frontier-model risks is increasingly intersecting with government access policy.

First-order effects

Washington regulators face a coordinated request from OpenAI and Anthropic to limit availability of Chinese open-source models, while the two labs become more clearly opposed to the broader tech industry on that question.
The gap between Sam Altman’s public support for open source and OpenAI’s reported lobbying position creates immediate scrutiny of how the company distinguishes open development from access to foreign models.

Second-order effects

Open-source advocates and companies that build on broadly available models have stronger reason to contest restrictions, framing model availability as a competitive and ecosystem issue rather than solely a safety question.
If regulators take up the request, model distributors and enterprise users would need to assess whether a model’s Chinese origin creates new access or compliance risk before deployment.

Third-order effects

The dispute points toward AI model access becoming a geopolitical control point: governments may increasingly treat model provenance and distribution as matters of strategic policy, not just software licensing.
If this approach spreads, the AI ecosystem could split more sharply between nationally acceptable model supply chains and a contested global open-model commons, though the article does not establish that restrictions will be adopted.

The trend: This is part of the shift from voluntary frontier-AI safety coordination toward state-mediated control over which models can circulate across borders.

Discussion

@jensenhuang Jensen Huang on x
For my first post, I'm sharing a letter @NVIDIA signed on why open models matter. AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country. Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty. Th…
@satyanadella Satya Nadella on x
Open-weight models are essential to a healthy AI ecosystem. Together with others across our industry, we are outlining a path for open-weight models to strengthen American competitiveness and expand economic opportunity, while protecting national security. https://www.microsoft.c…
@andrewcurran_ Andrew Curran on x
AMD has also signed! [image]
@mattzeitlin Matthew Zeitlin on x
Oh so innovation being driven by quasi monopoly returns accruing to companies run by their founders is bad now? I thought we had all read Zero to One?
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
google spent the week fence sitting until this morning, now looks like they too want to be seen as pro open source now that everyone else signed the jensen letter
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Nobody is saying that all software has to be open source. What they're saying is that open-weight AI should be allowed. By implication, they're rejecting your company's incessant machinations to kneecap the open model ecosystem. Read the room.
@tszzl Roon on x
if we could coordinate a global capabilities slowdown today i would likely press that magic button
@packym Packy McCormick on x
Anthropic is an ideologically captured organization seeking regulatory capture to protect both their business and their ideology. [image]
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
the way this is playing out: the part of the industry that is conflicted on open source realizes it is better to all align against anthropic and box them out tons of frenemies against a common antagonist, and what better way to sway valley sentiment than say “hooray open source”
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
It's funny that this whole fracas kicked off because there was one eval which said that Kimi3 was near-frontier at frontend design work (probably one of the least important metrics tbh).
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
NYTimes: “OpenAI and Anthropic have lobbied regulators in Washington to restrict open-source A.I. models …
@emollick Ethan Mollick on x
I think most people, when talking about open weights models, don't deeply believe in the vision of AGI/ASI that lab insiders believe in. Like they don't expect AI to really present grave semi-autonomous biosecurity or other similar risks. Whether it is right or not, no one knows,
@tszzl Roon on x
@woke8yearold yep - there is no way to hold a consistent belief set where you're agi pilled and pro open source and this has been obvious since ilya wrote this 2015 or whatever. enormous cope ensues
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
Excited to see Anthropic acknowledge the real problem with open is it competes with their corporate economic strategy. The “awareness” here is revealing. When you build the biggest private market cap ever, you should expect competition. I'm sure the secondaries have been nice.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
Yesterday they were signing open letters. Today they are yelling at people to “read the room. VCs have recreated BlueSky-politics from first principles.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
here's a story about the “open vs closed” debate over the past few weeks in the tech industry and how, depending on who you ask, the global economy and national security could be at stake w/ @kateconger @AnaSwanson and meaghan tobin https://www.nytimes.com/...
@angelbrodin Angel on x
this is the dumbest take i've seen all week, on par with ppl who say “if you care about homelessness then let them live in your house.” just an incredibly dumb purity test it's not too late to delete this my man
@sundarpichai Sundar Pichai on x
Very happy to support this on behalf of Google. We have long benefited from open source, are big contributors to open source and in fact have consistently made open weights models with Gemma available from @GoogleDeepMind @demishassabis . Onwards!
@mononofu Julian Schrittwieser on x
I'm so excited that @JensenHuang is a believer in open source now, looking forward to the CUDA and GPU driver open source release!
@finkd Mark Zuckerberg on x
Open source is a positive and important force for both empowering people and preventing centralization. Proud to support this.
@wowbaggert @wowbaggert on bluesky
These guys both know that their customers are going to migrate to cheaper self hosted open models the second they try to charge them the actual cost of their opex. — This is rank anti-competitive maneuvering.
r/artificielle r on reddit
la guerre est déclarée entre partisans du closed et de l'open source
r/technology r on reddit
Nvidia and 24 other companies sign open-weights letter as Washington weighs Chinese AI model ban — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google absent from the list
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky
Anthropic and OpenAI are creating a Streisand Effect where their ongoing attacks on open Chinese AI models lets everyone know those models are actually so good that they're worth checking out.
r/LocalLLaMA r on reddit
Sources: OpenAI and Anthropic quietly lobby Washington regulators to restrict open-source AI models, even as Sam Altman publicly says he supports open source AI
@vkoganpolisci Vladimir Kogan on x
Classic Bootleggers and Baptists! OpenAI and Anthropic want to do to Chinese open-source AI models what Detroit did to Chinese electric cars. https://www.nytimes.com/...
r/BetterOffline r on reddit
OpenAI and Anthropic quietly lobby Washington regulators to restrict open-source AI models, even as Sam Altman publicly says he supports open source AI
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
The entire tech industry (save for Anthropic) has come out in favor of open source AI. So what happens next? Will Anthropic change its lobbying efforts? Not likely. Now the gaslighting begins: “Nobody is trying to ban open source.” “We just want to limit who can use it.” “W…

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