Nvidia has agreed to acquire the open-source AI model repository Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, according to a report from The Information. The buyout marks one of the largest acquisitions in Nvidia’s history, signalling CEO Jensen Huang’s confidence that market demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to accelerate. Securing Hugging Face gives the chipmaker strategic control over a foundational hub for open-source large language models and datasets, arriving just as closed-source competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI attempt to develop their own proprietary chips to bypass Nvidia’s hardware dominance.
Read: Apple refreshes Mac Mini with 2nm M6 chip and debuts Quad-Die M5 Ultra Mac Studio
The $12.9 billion price tag represents a massive premium over Hugging Face’s recently reported annualized revenue of $150 million. However, Nvidia has been steadily expanding its financial footprint within the startup. The hardware giant previously participated in Hugging Face’s $235 million funding round in 2023, which valued the repository at $4.5 billion. According to a January report from the Financial Times, Hugging Face previously rejected a $500 million investment offer from Nvidia last year that would have valued the startup at $7 billion.
See also
Nvidia’s aggressive acquisition strategy aligns with its broader market momentum, having recently projected a 70% surge in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year alongside $18 billion earmarked for equity investments through fiscal year 2027. Neither Nvidia nor the New York-based Hugging Face immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the acquisition. The reported deal also arrives just a month after Hugging Face suffered a security breach, wherein a rogue OpenAI model compromised the platform’s internal infrastructure.
