Open Source x Sovereign AI: SF Tech Week

Every organization is asking the same questions. How do we use AI without giving away our IP? How do we keep costs predictable as usage grows? How much of our AI should we own? This three-day track brings enterprise leaders, builders, and researchers together to work through the answers with open-weight models and sovereign AI. Day 1 is about owning your AI stack. Day 2 is about keeping your IP private. Day 3 brings both together in an open unconference and ends with demo night.

October 6-8, 2026 · Apollo Innovation Commons, San Francisco · Part of SF Tech Week
Hosted by Apollo Innovation Commons. Headline sponsor: TrustedRouter.

WHO SHOULD COME

• Enterprise leaders: CTOs, CIOs, and AI leads deciding what to build, buy, or own

• Security, legal, and compliance teams who protect IP and sign off on deployments

• Finance and operations leaders watching AI spend and looking for predictable costs

• Builders and researchers creating open models and privacy tools

HOW THE DAYS WORK

• Every day opens at 8:15 with coffee and a panel on the day's central question

• 75-minute working sessions built around real decisions: practitioners share what they chose, what it cost, and what they would do differently

• Lunch and afternoon blocks for small-group roundtables and hands-on time

• Happy hour 5:00 to 7:00 PM every day. Day 3 rolls straight into demo night

DAY 1 · TUE OCT 6 · OWNING YOUR AI STACK

The strategic case for sovereign AI: when open-weight models make sense, what it really costs to run your own versus renting from a frontier lab, and how to stay free of any single vendor's pricing and policies.

• 8:15-10:00 AM Coffee and Panel: Who Owns Your Intelligence? (social + panel)

• 10:15-11:30 AM Rent or Own: The Real Cost of AI at Scale (working session)

• 11:45 AM-1:00 PM Open-Weight Models in the Enterprise: Where They Win Today (working session)

• 1:00-2:00 PM Lunch + Roundtables

• 2:00-3:15 PM Avoiding Lock-In: Building for Model Choice (working session)

• 3:15-4:15 PM Sovereign AI in Practice (showcase)

• 4:15-5:00 PM Why Every Company Needs an AI Sovereignty Plan (keynote)

• 5:00-7:00 PM Open Source Happy Hour

DAY 2 · WED OCT 7 · KEEPING YOUR IP PRIVATE

How organizations put AI to work on their most sensitive material, from trade secrets and product plans to customer and regulated data, and the privacy protections and governance that let security, legal, and compliance teams say yes. TrustedRouter headlines.

• 8:15-10:00 AM Coffee and Panel: What Are We Really Sending to the Model? (social + panel)

• 10:15-11:30 AM Your Data, Their Servers: Where Enterprise IP Leaks (working session)

• 11:45 AM-1:00 PM Private by Design: Confidential Computing and Encrypted AI (working session)

• 1:00-2:00 PM Lunch + Roundtables

• 2:00-3:15 PM Getting to Yes with Security, Legal, and Compliance (working session)

• 3:15-4:15 PM Proving Privacy: Audits, Attestation, and Trust (showcase)

• 4:15-5:00 PM The Private AI Enterprise (keynote, TrustedRouter)

• 5:00-7:00 PM Open Source Happy Hour

DAY 3 · THU OCT 8 · THE SOVEREIGN ENTERPRISE

Two days in, bringing it together: case studies from organizations running AI on their own terms, a conversation on data sovereignty and policy, an open unconference, a closing keynote, and demo night. The unconference board opens at 8:15 AM and anyone can propose a session.

• 8:15-10:00 AM Coffee and Panel: What Leaders Are Deciding (social + panel)

• 10:15-11:30 AM Case Studies: AI on Our Own Terms (working session)

• 11:45 AM-1:00 PM Data Sovereignty and the Policy Horizon (working session)

• 1:00-2:00 PM Lunch + Open Build

• 2:00-4:15 PM Open Unconference: Attendees Set the Agenda

• 4:15-5:00 PM Who Should Own the Next Utility? (closing keynote)

• 5:00-7:00 PM Happy Hour into Demo Night

• 7:00-9:00 PM Demo Night

DEMO NIGHT · OCT 8, 7:00-9:00 PM

Sovereign AI you can see working. Teams show products and tools that keep data private, bring AI costs down, or run on open models, including projects that came out of the week's sessions. Doors open at happy hour. Produced by MASS Arts.

TAKE PART

The speaker lineup is still being booked. We're inviting CTOs, CISOs, general counsel, and finance leaders making AI decisions right now, alongside the researchers and open source builders creating the tools that make sovereign AI possible. Propose a session, nominate a speaker, apply to demo, or apply for a contributor pass at opensourcesf.com.

Contributor passes are subsidized for people who build or maintain an open model, a privacy tool, or the infrastructure that lets organizations run AI on their own terms.

Registration is free and reviewed. A $200 sponsor ticket is available for anyone who wants to back the track, and full sponsorship packages are at opensourcesf.com.

ABOUT THE HOST

Apollo Innovation Commons is a civic innovation hub in San Francisco, organized as a lab of labs across AI, biotech, robotics, climate, and the arts. The work is about widening access to the tools, capital, and shared infrastructure that let people build.

Open innovation, here, is a practical commitment: publish what we learn, support the maintainers who keep shared infrastructure running, and keep the people building with these tools in the conversation about how they develop. Large organizations and independent builders both rely on that common layer, which is why this track is built for both.

Anchor labs: Learning Layer Labs and MASS Arts. Headline sponsor: TrustedRouter.
Full schedule and speaker updates at opensourcesf.com.