The main result of this paper is a complete proof of a new Lieb–Thirring-type inequality for Jacobi matrices originally conjectured by Hundertmark and Simon. In particular, it is proved that the estimate on the sum of eigenvalues does not depend on the off-diagonal terms as long as they are smaller than their asymptotic value. An interesting feature of the proof is that it employs a technique originally used by Hundertmark–Laptev–Weidl concerning sums of singular values for compact operators. This technique seems to be novel in the context of Jacobi matrices.