Nader Khalil🍊

Director of Developer Tech @ NVIDIA, Co-founder/CEO acquired by NVIDIA • I laugh til I cry it's not the same on zoom •YC W20 | UCSB • views are my own

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

Exciting news...

🚨 https://t.co/GCUjRDOu73 has been acquired by NVIDIA! ❤️🤙

We started Brev with the goal of building the best damn developer experience possible.

We’ve been working closely with NVIDIA since August, and we couldn't be more excited to team up.

I'm infinitely grateful for our early users, investors, and team that supported us thus far. So excited for what's coming 🤙

[Joseph Nelson @josephofiowa]

@ZhidingYu encouraged to see many at NVIDIA continue to advance open source AI

[Tyler Fong @tyler_fong_]

Open Source / Open Weights are the lifeblood of a vibrant AI ecosystem. So many startups and enterprises depend on it. This is good to hear.

[Paul Klein IV @pk_iv]

@NaderLikeLadder long live open source!

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@ZhidingYu Incredible, here to support on this effort 🙏

[Zhiding Yu @ZhidingYu]

I'm very sad to see Jensen go.

One of Jensen's big legacies to the AI community is the call for open-sourcing and healthy competition.

From now on, I will double down on this effort.

"Open source versus closed source. Light versus darkness. A decisive battle between two futures and two destinies for humanity."

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

This is a difficult moment. It’s hard not to look at the journey this company has taken and not be filled with respect for what Jensen built. The spirit of the company remains strong: "mission is the boss”.

That said, as NVIDIA finds its way forward, I want one thing to be clear: NVIDIA's contributions to open source are unwavering.

Jensen has been vocal about this, and that commitment runs deep in NVIDIA's people and culture. We all understand the importance of open source.

NVIDIA is a huge supporter of open source because we understand something.
If you want to diffuse technology, you do so through an ecosystem, not a single company or entity.

No one owns the internet, no one owns servers, and no one owns operating systems… but through open source, an ecosystem of closed and open innovation flourishes.

When we talk about delivering agents safely and securely, that too will take place because of open source. For example, ensuring people have the best models to secure themselves at machine speed unburdened by arbitrary guardrails decided behind closed doors.

Open source & AI are often discussed together, but it’s worth reminding, open source predates AI. It is a mechanism for sharing ideas inspired by the hippies at computer labs of California in the 1960s.

Before AI, the largest shift I lived through was the internet. It was remarkable seeing the fight for open source take place there. Between browsers, runtimes, net neutrality, etc. What came as a result was HTML5 and an extremely vibrant ecosystem that built the internet as we know it today.

NVIDIA and its partners hold an incredibly important role in delivering this technology. NVIDIA contributes to every layer of the stack. Runtimes, models, harnesses, programming languages, frameworks, etc. None of that changes.

Long live open source.

[Jensen Huang @JensenHuang]

For my first post, I’m sharing a letter @NVIDIA signed on why open models matter.

AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country.

Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.

The world needs both frontier closed models and frontier open models.

https://t.co/AUKzoQ5Ikb

[Patrick Moorhead @PatrickMoorhead]

This is a great example below of how Jensen operated. Quick and decisive. It's also a good demonstration of his influence on open source. The closed-source crowd must be doing cartwheels right now.

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

Jensen cares so deeply about open source

Our industry is lucky to have him

[Alex Cheema @alexocheema]

In June @NaderLikeLadder emailed Jensen about a crazy idea we had over dinner to make Local AI 10x better on NVIDIA hardware.

Jensen replied in 7 minutes. He saw this as important work, and approved a war room for us to work on this at NVIDIA HQ.

For a month, NVIDIA HQ was the @exolabs satellite office. We were overwhelmed by the support we got. We were back to back the first week with smart NVIDIANs coming in to our war room to help us. Creators of CUDA, Dynamo, people who built NVIDIA.

Long story short with NVIDIA we managed to improve their Local AI playbooks by 9.6x (almost the 10x goal we set out with). We’ll be publishing a whitepaper on this work.

We were just a small startup with a crazy idea. Jensen took a bet on us. Jensen cares deeply about Open Source AI and Local AI.

I don't believe Jensen is replaceable, he's a 1 of 1 human, but I hope NVIDIA will continue to aggressively support Open Source AI and Local AI, and continue to take bets on small startups with crazy ideas.

Thank you Jensen

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

Our country is so lucky to have a leader like @JensenHuang

I don’t know anyone with his technical depth and business expertise

And on top of that, a wise voice in an otherwise wildly volatile period.

[sarah guo @saranormous]

.@JensenHuang is one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurs of all time. He’s bent the arc of technological progress, and the growth engine of the American economy rests on the shoulders of the company he built.

Sadly, greatness doesn’t guarantee goodness. It’s disappointing.

The Economist says “no one is irreplaceable.” They are very wrong. A founder who has spent 30 years building such a unique company so capably has earned the presumption that he should keep leading it.

More importantly, our competitors and adversaries will not wait for us to find “another Jensen.”

The board is getting to the bottom of the national security and judgement questions. Depending on the answers, I expect most shareholders would want him to continue leading.

We should demand loyalty and accountability, but sainthood cannot be the price of admission to leadership. or to Team America.

[dar @radbackwards]

The darkest hour is just before the dawn

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@altryne @MilksandMatcha @HarryTandy thank you!!! 🙏

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@altryne @MilksandMatcha @HarryTandy Tore my ACL playing basketball 😭 Just had surgery 2 weeks ago

[Joseph Nelson @josephofiowa]

looking forward to joining a stellar cast speaking at TomorrowX next week

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@MilksandMatcha @HarryTandy Hahah can’t stop won’t stop

Ty 🙏 taking PT seriously

[arian ghashghai @arian_ghashghai]

Allen is one of my favorite co-investors btw, and one of the few doing pre-seed the way it ought to be

Proper adventure capital and a great guy

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@Coolmark482 @nvidia Gonna miss you Mark!!

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

Allen is one of the most helpful investors.
In 2023 we fumbled a raise, I’ll never forget his phone call, he was a beacon of hope in an otherwise dark stretch.
Grateful for his support in Brev, and friendship now

WELCOME BACK ALLEN 🤩

[Allen Gannett @Allen]

friends, haven't posted here in a long time. will start posting a bit more 💕

all is great. investing in a lot of great pre-seed startups.

maven the corgi is still going strong (now about to turn 13 years old!)

spotted here with friends.

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@Scobleizer lol no idea, best smoke flavor and most tender

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

Memphis Minnies is the only good BBQ in San Francisco

[Nader Khalil🍊 @NaderLikeLadder]

@RamonDarioIT 100%