Tether CEO Claims Big Tech Is Waging War on Open-Source AI

The CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, has made some serious criticism on big tech in his latest tweet. In his tweet, the CEO of $USDT stablecoin issuer, Tether, has accused major technology companies of waging a campaign against open-source artificial intelligence. He has argued that concerns over AI safety are being raised only to protect struggling business models rather than safeguarding users.

Centralized big-tech AI is starting a warpath against open-source AI models.
The excuse: safety.
The reality: extinction of their business model, already heavily underwater with gazillion dolllars capex.

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) June 29, 2026

Ardoino Questions Big Tech’s AI Safety Narrative

In his tweet, Ardoino claimed that centralized big-tech AI firms are beginning an undeclared war against open-source AI models. According to him, the stated focus on safety is just a mask in an effort to preserve proprietary AI businesses that have required enormous capital investments.

These remarks by Paolo Ardoino come at a time when debate over open-source and closed AI development is intensifying. On one side, several leading AI companies have called for tighter oversight of advanced AI systems, On the other side, advocates of open-source models defend that publicly available AI technology promotes innovation and transparency.

Tether Reaffirms Commitment to Open-Source AI

Shortly after Ardoino’s tweet, Tether also made an official tweet regarding this matter and retweeted the CEO’s tweet. Tether retweeted to reinforce the CEO’s stance by claiming that Tether AI is 100% open-source. With this, Tether was referring to its QVAC initiative. QVAC is Tether’s dedicated AI platform and software development kit (SDK). It is designed to let developers build AI applications that run locally on users’ devices instead of relying on centralized cloud servers.

Tether AI is 100% open-source

https://t.co/ShEPxiDjYm

— Tether (@tether) June 29, 2026

The announcement highlights Tether’s growing focus on AI infrastructure beyond its stablecoin business which already ranked on top in terms of market capitalization. By emphasizing an open-source approach, Tether is promoting its AI efforts around transparency and community-driven development.