NVIDIA to Acquire Hugging Face in $12.93 Billion Deal, Bolstering AI Hardware and Open Software Position

NVIDIA has announced plans to acquire Hugging Face, a leading platform for sharing and testing open-source AI models, in a deal valued at $12.93 billion. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the company will focus on scaling Hugging Face's platform, strengthening its infrastructure, and expanding AI access, pending regulatory approval.

The acquisition would give NVIDIA a strong foothold in both AI hardware and open AI software. Hugging Face, often described as a GitHub for AI, lets developers share, discover, and test open-source models. It has grown significantly since the generative AI boom began in 2022, currently reporting over 18 million users, three million shared models, and more than 200,000 companies using its models commercially.

Huang pledged that Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem, with no requirement for users to adopt NVIDIA products. He pointed to his recent letter supporting open-source models and noted NVIDIA's contributions to the platform, including over 500 models and 250 open datasets.

Some analysts see open-source AI gaining importance alongside proprietary models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Earlier this month, Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue argued that China is leading the AI race because of its embrace of open models.

NVIDIA was already an investor in Hugging Face, having joined at least one funding round in 2023. Other investors include Google, Amazon, Salesforce, AMD, Intel, IBM, and Qualcomm.

Source: Engadget