Open or closed AI? Nvidia’s Nader Khalil and Sydney Sykes take on one of the decisions shaping next-gen startups at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
NVIDIA Corp. — disrupt 2026: OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and more take over 6 industry stages. 25% off tickets now Back by popular demand: Save up to $300 on Disrupt You have an AI product to build.
Do you choose a proprietary frontier model and get moving quickly? Build on an open model and gain greater control? Fine-tune your own version? Run locally? Use multiple models? Change strategy six months from now when the economics and capabilities shift again? There may not be one right answer. But for founders, choosing badly can affect almost everything that follows — cost, infrastructure, margins, differentiation, speed, and control. That decision is at the center of the session “The Open vs. Closed AI Debate Is Just Getting Started,” coming to the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, happening on October 13-15 in San Francisco. Led by Nvidia‘s Nader Khalil, Director of Developer Tech, and Sydney Sykes, Global Head of VC Partnerships, the session will discuss the trade-offs between open and proprietary AI and whether either approach can provide a lasting competitive advantage. This isn’t a philosophical argument about open source. It’s a business decision being made right now inside startups of every size. Dive deep into this AI debate with 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt by getting your pass. Register now and save up to $200 before prices go up on September 25 at 11:59 p.m.
