Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Calls Bittensor Modern ‘Folding@Home’ Pushing TAO’s Price Past $300

• The rally in Bittensor’s price came after Huang compared the project to “a modern version of folding@home,” referencing its decentralized compute model.
• He was responding to Chamath Palihapitiya, who pointed to a recent distributed training run on Bittensor’s Subnet 3 as evidence of the network’s ability to coordinate large-scale AI development.
• Huang said the future of AI will likely combine proprietary and open-source models rather than favor a single approach.
• Friday’s uptick pushes TAO’s annual gain to 7.2%, with the token gaining nearly 50% over the past month.

Bittensor’s token (TAO) crossed the $300 mark on Friday after comments from Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang supported the growing relevance of decentralized approaches to artificial intelligence.

TAO’s price was up over 13% in the last 24 hours, trading at around $277, paring gains from an intraday high of over $305. This marked the first time the token has crossed the $300 mark since November last year. 

Despite the uptick, Bittensor’s token remains more than 80% below its record high of more than $757 seen in March 2024. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the altcoin remained in ‘extremely bullish’ territory amid ‘extremely high’ levels of chatter.

Jensen Huang Backs Hybrid AI Model Approach

Talking to investor Chamath Palihapitiya in an episode of the All-In podcast, Huang called the project “a modern version of folding@home.” He was responding to Palihapitiya’s note of a recent training run on Bittensor’s Subnet 3. “They managed to train a 4 billion parameter llama model totally distributed with a bunch of people contributing,” the entrepreneur said, calling it a “pretty crazy technical accomplishment because it's like random people and each person gets a little share.”

Folding@home is a volunteer‑driven, distributed‑computing project that was launched during COVID to help scientists understand diseases better and lost some momentum in recent years. It utilises idle time on people’s computers to simulate how proteins fold and move inside the body. 

Huang Bets On AI Industry Shifts Toward Dual Model Structure

Huang stated that the future of AI will likely include both proprietary and open-source models operating in parallel. “These two things are not A or B, it’s A and B,” he said, adding that models should be viewed as a foundational technology rather than a standalone product.

He noted that while large, consumer-facing AI services will continue to dominate the general-purpose market, open models will play a key role in enabling industry-specific applications where organizations require greater control over data and customization.

The overall cryptocurrency edged 0.2% lower in the last 24 hours to around $2.47 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) traded flat around at around $69,500, dipping back below the $70,000 market after a brief recovery in morning trade. Friday’s uptick pushes TAO’s annual gain to 7.2%, with the token gaining nearly 50% over the past month. 

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