NVIDIA Open Season Part 2: Building in the Open

For years, the frontier was closed. Leading models sat behind a handful of labs, and founders rented access on someone else’s terms. Now open-weight models are becoming more capable, and that’s changing how AI companies get built.

This shift raises new questions. Should you own your stack or keep renting it? Can fine-tuning on your own data become a moat? What does inference cost when you run it yourself? Sovereign and on-prem deployment can give you more control over your data and less reliance on a single provider, but they come with their own trade-offs.

And if models become a commodity, where does your advantage sit, and how do founders raise, build and defend?

About the event:

Building in the Open is the second half of Open Season, hosted by Cremorne Digital Hub in partnership with NVIDIA. Over one evening, we’ll unpack what open-weight models mean for startups: what they cost to run, where the advantage lives, and how the next generation of AI companies might be built.

Three founders building on open-weight models will share what they’ve learned, from choosing and running models to building a business around them. Alan Tsen, General Manager of Cremorne Digital Hub, will moderate the panel. Panellists will be announced soon.Come straight from the afternoon Nemotron workshop or join us for the evening only.

The conversation will cover:

Closed frontier to open-weight models

Owning your stack versus renting it

Fine-tuning as a moat

The cost and control of inference

Sovereign and on-prem deployment

Data control and reducing reliance on a single provider

How founders raise, build and defend when models become a commodity

Why you should join:

You’ll hear from founders building on open-weight models today.

You’ll get a clearer read on costs, control and where competitive advantage might sit.

You can put your questions to the panel in an open Q&A.

You’ll connect with Melbourne founders, builders and engineers over drinks.

The frontier is opening up. The question is what you build on it. Join us for a night with the founders already doing it.