Nvidia is in talks to acquire Hugging Face, a popular artificial intelligence platform that releases open source models. The deal could be one of the largest in history for the chipmaker.
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The two sides have been in acquisition talks in recent weeks; the terms of the deal reportedly value Hugging Face at more than $13 billion business insider Refer to your own sources. The two companies have not yet reached an agreement and talks may break down. The publication previously reported that Hugging Face was receiving takeover offers.
Nvidia is using its massive cash reserves to aggressively increase transaction volume. The day before, the company said it had earmarked $18 billion for equity investments by the end of the fiscal year; its investments in private companies so far totaled $47.9 billion. Microsoft has also met with Hugging Face, but negotiations with the software giant have not yet taken place.
Nvidia already has a partnership with Hugging Face: In 2023, the chipmaker participated in a funding round that saw the platform raise $235 million at a $4.5 billion valuation. At the end of last year, Hugging Face rejected Nvidia’s $500 million investment offer at a $7 billion valuation – the company’s management said it did not want a dominant investor to influence its decision-making.
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf. The company is at the center of the open artificial intelligence ecosystem – a platform that hosts millions of models and datasets on which developers can build their products. By owning the platform, Nvidia will be able to influence these developers, but it will weaken one of Hugging Face’s strengths: neutrality. The platform supports models and devices from all manufacturers, including Nvidia’s competitors AMD and Intel.
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