Web Summit opens in Lisbon with Chinese robots and a Nvidia investigation

On Monday, the Web Summit 2026 technology conference opened in Lisbon, Portugal, with robots from Aigibot, a Chinese company. The conference expects near 70,000 attendees, 900 speakers and more than 2,000 startups. Nvidia, a US company that makes chips, starts an investigation into its CEO Jensen Huang. Reports tell that a different country tried to use Huang.

What was said

Cosgrave told that Chinese companies make more of the future than other companies do. Cosgrave referred to open source technology. Matthew Prince of Cloudflare told that the Huang reports are very salacious. Prince also told that Huang gave much to the AI ecosystem.

What was shown

Manus, a company that started in China, showed a 30-second AI video from a 13-word instruction. Its co-founder Tao Zhang told that Manus will not hire more persons. It will hire persons who can work with AI.

What is not known

The reports tell of a relation between Huang and a person that the reports tell is a Chinese spy. The scope of the investigation is not known. Prince told that it is not known at this time if Huang will be a hero or a villain.

Insight: Chip limits do not stop Chinese open source

The US has tried to limit exports of the top chips to China. Cosgrave told that Chinese companies make more of the future than other companies, with open source technology. This reads as a race in which China moves in open source technology, not in chips. This is important if your systems use open source models.