Hugging Face’s CEO on why companies are done renting their AI

# Hugging Face's CEO on why companies are done renting their AI | TechCrunch Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/hugging-faces-ceo-on-why-companies-are-done-renting-their-ai/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/hugging-faces-ceo-on-why-companies-are-done-renting-their-ai/) **Image Credits:**TechCrunch 7:00 AM PDT · July 10, 2026 Open source AI is booming, according to[Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/)CEO[Clem Delangue](https://www.linkedin.com/in/clementdelangue/)\. The company has grown into something like a GitHub for AI in recent years, where AI builders can share and download open models and datasets, now used by roughly half the Fortune 500\. Delangue has seen the same story play out again and again: companies start out on frontier APIs, but as they scale, the costs push them towards open source models\. On this episode of TechCrunch’s[Equity](https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/)podcast, Rebecca Bellan talked to Delangue about why the open vs closed source fight matters in the wake of Anthropic’s halted Fable release, and why he’s worried about the possibility that a handful of big companies could end up controlling everything\. Subscribe to Equity on[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch),[Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780),[Overcast](https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity),[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul_g94iCRgpQ)and all the casts\. You also can follow Equity on[X](https://twitter.com/EquityPod)and[Threads](https://www.threads.net/@equitypod), at @EquityPod\. *When you purchase through links in our articles,[we may earn a small commission](https://techcrunch.com/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards/)\. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence\.* Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast\. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four\-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband\. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University\. You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing[theresa\.loconsolo@techcrunch\.com](mailto:[email protected])\. [View Bio](https://techcrunch.com/author/theresa-loconsolo/) ## Most Popular