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's Nader Khalil and Sydney Sykes will debate open versus closed AI model strategies for startup builders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.

Nvidia's Nader Khalil, Director of Developer Tech, and Sydney Sykes, Global Head of VC Partnerships, will lead a Builders Stage session on open versus proprietary AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, held October 13-15 in San Francisco. The session will cover trade-offs in cost, control, margins, and defensibility when choosing model strategies. Nvidia noted its Nemotron 3 Super, a 120-billion-parameter open model launched in March for agentic workloads, is already being combined with proprietary models in hybrid setups.