Reported Nvidia in talks to acquire Hugging Face at potential valuation exceeding $13 billion

According to Business Insider citing informed sources, Nvidia has been in talks over recent weeks to acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face, potentially valuing it at more than $13 billion. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement, and negotiations remain subject to breakdown. Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face commented on this report. Microsoft had previously approached Hugging Face, but those discussions are no longer ongoing. Nvidia is expanding its investments in the AI sector using ample cash reserves. The company stated that it has committed to investing $18 billion in equity stakes during the remainder of this fiscal year, while also holding non-publicly traded equities worth $47.9 billion. Nvidia already has capital ties with Hugging Face: In 2023, Nvidia participated in a funding round of $235 million, when Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion. Previously, Hugging Face rejected a $500 million investment proposal from Nvidia to avoid having any single investor influence corporate decision-making. Hugging Face aggregates millions of models and datasets, serving as a critical foundational platform within the open-source AI ecosystem. If the acquisition goes through, Nvidia could further expand its influence over developer ecosystems and drive greater adoption of its chips across various AI tasks; however, ownership might undermine Hugging Face’s image of neutrality since the platform supports hardware from competitors such as AMD and Intel alike.