Nvidia executives to debate open vs. proprietary AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Nader Khalil, Nvidia's Director of Developer Tech, and Sydney Sykes, Global Head of VC Partnerships, will lead a session titled "The Open vs. Closed AI Debate Is Just Getting Started" on the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, taking place October 13-15 in San Francisco. The session will examine the trade-offs between open and proprietary AI and whether either approach can provide a lasting competitive advantage.

The discussion targets founders and technical leaders building AI products, covering decisions such as choosing a proprietary frontier model for speed, building on an open model for more control, fine-tuning a custom version, running locally, or using multiple models. The choice can affect cost, infrastructure, margins, differentiation, speed, and control.

Khalil brings a builder and infrastructure perspective. He leads open source and local AI at Nvidia and previously co-founded Brev.dev, an AI infrastructure company acquired by Nvidia in July 2024. Sykes adds a venture ecosystem perspective as Nvidia's global head of VC partnerships, helping examine what developers need to build versus what companies need to become scalable businesses.

Nvidia has pointed to rapid progress in open models, noting in July that 145 papers accepted at ICML 2026 cited its Nemotron open models and datasets. At the same time, proprietary frontier labs continue advancing model capabilities. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at GTC in 2026 that the future is not proprietary versus open, but both.