Jensen Huang defends AI distillation as competition
On 28 September 2026 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Squawk Box that training AI models on rivals’ outputs is ‘not robbery’: ‘That’s called competition.’ ‘You’re allowed to test somebody else’s products all you want,’ he said. Nvidia’s products get stripped ‘down to bones.’
Why it mattered His remarks contradicted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who called AI distillation ‘theft’ in July and threatened sanctions against overseas companies.
Huang said “competition makes everything better,” and that chipmakers must “know your customers, and disable the service” if products are diverted.
Corrections
- 2026-10-05: Restored the quotes per the editor’s hand-verification of the CNBC article: “That’s called competition,” “You’re allowed to test somebody else’s products all you want,” “down to bones,” “competition makes everything better,” and “know your customers, and disable the service.” Set the CNBC video as primary with its real title and the CNBC article as secondary with its real headline. Added the Bessent July “theft” remark and sanctions threat to “why” per the editor.