NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra: US's Top Open AI Model 2026

NVIDIA has unveiled Nemotron 3 Ultra, its most powerful open AI model, at Computex 2026. This new model scores 48 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, making it the highest-scoring US open model ever. Nemotron 3 Ultra runs significantly faster than some rivals, delivering over 300 tokens per second. The Nemotron 3 family, which includes Nano, Super, and Ultra, saw over 50 million downloads before the Ultra version launched. However, despite this achievement for US open-weight AI, Nemotron 3 Ultra still trails some Chinese models. For example, China's Kimi K2.6 scores 54 on the same index. The bottom line is that open-weight models allow anyone to download, modify, and run AI systems freely, creating a parallel AI race that impacts how developers and businesses build AI products.