Why Big Tech Is Abandoning Open Source (And Why We Are Doubling Down)

In a viral industry commentary, Lightricks Co-founder and CEO Zeev Farbman challenges the narrative that Big Tech's retreat from open-source AI signals a failed business model. He points to the sudden departure of Alibaba's Qwen team technical lead and senior researchers just 24 hours after their latest model launch as a catalyst for widespread speculation. This event, combined with Google and OpenAI's tightly guarded 'walled gardens,' has led investors to believe open-weights AI might be economically unviable. Farbman directly counters this, asserting the trillion-dollar giants are not closing models due to poor economics, but as a strategic move to establish what he calls 'the most lucrative software monopoly in human history,' aiming to control and monetize every digital interaction.

Farbman positions Lightricks, the company behind popular creative apps, in direct opposition to this trend by accelerating its open-weights strategy. He frames this not just as a technical choice, but as a philosophical bet on the future of AI innovation. By keeping models open, Lightricks argues it fosters broader developer access, resists centralized control, and enables a more distributed ecosystem of AI-powered tools. This stance highlights a growing schism in the AI industry between those seeking to gatekeep advanced models for competitive advantage and those advocating for open development to accelerate overall progress and application diversity.