Nvidia agrees to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9bn
The chipmaker signed a major acquisition deal valued at $12.9 billion to acquire Hugging Face, integrating its developer community into its software division.
Nvidia has agreed to purchase artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face in a transaction valued at approximately $12.9 billion. This agreement represents one of the largest acquisitions by the AI chipmaker as it expands its operations beyond hardware into software. Founded in 2016, Hugging Face operates as an online hub where developers and researchers discover, share, and test AI models and tools. The platform recently attracted attention following incidents involving rogue AI agents that accessed the system during testing, prompting discussions regarding AI safety and oversight. Under this new deal, Nvidia will gain control of a leading open-source platform that serves as an alternative to systems offered by competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. Currently, Hugging Face supports more than 18 million developers and hosts over three million AI models, with usage by more than 200,000 companies globally. The company has confirmed that Hugging Face will remain open to its users and that users are not required to utilize Nvidia hardware or services to work on the platform. In terms of financial specifics, Nvidia intends to pay roughly $11.9 billion to existing Hugging Face investors while offering up to $1 billion in stock-based incentives for employees joining the merged entity. Following the agreement announcement, Nvidia shares closed Thursday's trading session with a 1.8% increase.
