Nvidia Corp. is reportedly in advanced discussions to acquire artificial intelligence startup Hugging Face in a transaction that could be valued at around $14 billion. People familiar with the matter suggest that an agreement, potentially for $12.9 billion plus a $1 billion retention package for employees, could be reached as early as this week. However, a final agreement has not yet been secured, and the timing or specific details of the deal could still change.
This potential acquisition would represent the largest strategic move by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to expand the adoption of AI technology and broaden the company's customer base. By acquiring Hugging Face, Nvidia would gain control over a significant platform where developers share and showcase AI models, furthering its influence in the open-source AI ecosystem. Nvidia is already an existing backer of Hugging Face, alongside other major tech companies like Google, Amazon, Intel, and Salesforce.
Hugging Face, founded in 2016, operates a platform for sharing AI models that can be freely utilized. The startup was last valued at $4.5 billion during a funding round three years prior. This deal follows Nvidia's recent aggressive expansion, including a $6 billion licensing agreement with Poolside in August and a $20 billion acquisition of most of chip startup Groq. The world's most valuable company and leading maker of AI accelerators, Nvidia, aims to diversify its offerings beyond hardware into software and other AI technologies.
