Nvidia buys Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, in what would be one of Nvidia’s biggest deals yet. The chipmaker has agreed to acquire the open-source model hub, The Information reports, with Reuters corroborating the figure. Neither company has confirmed the deal, and it could still fall apart.
Hugging Face hosts millions of open-source models and datasets, and is where a large share of the world’s AI developers publish, download and fine-tune them. It was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf. Nvidia already knew the company well: it took part in Hugging Face’s $235 million funding round in 2023, which valued the startup at $4.5 billion.
Last year Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia that would have valued it at $7 billion, the Financial Times reported, saying it did not want a single dominant investor shaping its decisions. The agreed price has nearly doubled since. Microsoft also met Hugging Face, though Business Insider reports those talks are not ongoing.
Why Nvidia buys Hugging Face
Nvidia buys Hugging Face to own the front door of open-source AI. The platform’s neutrality has been a large part of its appeal: it supports models and hardware from across the industry, including Nvidia rivals AMD and Intel. Every project hosted there is also a candidate to end up running on Nvidia chips.
The acquisition sits inside a wider buying spree. Nvidia has $18 billion committed to equity investments for the rest of its fiscal year, on top of $47.9 billion it already holds in private companies. It said on Wednesday it expects revenue to jump 70% next fiscal year, and it is reportedly in talks to invest in Perplexity at a $30 billion-plus valuation.
What it means for the UAE’s AI scene
The Gulf’s AI ecosystem leans on open source. TII’s Falcon models, MBZUAI’s research releases and Core42’s Jais — the UAE’s homegrown Arabic large language model, developed with G42 and MBZUAI — are all distributed through Hugging Face. For developers across the Gulf, it is the default download point for open models.
Hugging Face has also been in the news for less happy reasons: OpenAI paused AI training for two weeks after its own agents hacked the platform. Nvidia owning it would not change that overnight — the deal is not final — but Gulf AI teams now have a reason to watch how much of the open model economy ends up under one roof.
Why is Nvidia buying Hugging Face?
Hugging Face is where a large share of the world’s AI developers host, share and fine-tune open-source models. Owning it puts Nvidia at the centre of open-source AI development, and every workload that starts on the platform is a candidate to end up running on Nvidia chips.
Is the Nvidia-Hugging Face deal confirmed?
Not officially. The Information reported the $12.9 billion agreement, with Reuters corroborating. Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face has confirmed the deal, and it could still fall apart.
What was Hugging Face worth before?
Nvidia took part in its $235 million funding round in 2023, which valued the company at $4.5 billion. Last year it rejected a $500 million investment from Nvidia that would have valued it at $7 billion.
