Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the leading hub for open-source AI models, for $12.9 billion, according to a report from The Information published a day after Nvidia posted record quarterly revenue. Neither company has confirmed the deal, and the talks reportedly had not yet produced a signed agreement as of the report.
What Hugging Face Is
Founded in 2016, Hugging Face has become the primary repository where developers share, download, and fine-tune open-source machine learning models, often described as the “GitHub of AI.” The New York-based company raised $235 million at a $4.5 billion valuation in 2023, meaning a $12.9 billion price tag would value it at nearly three times that mark just three years later.
A Steep Price for Modest Revenue
Hugging Face’s annualized revenue is estimated at around $150 million, meaning Nvidia would be paying roughly 86 times revenue for a platform that has historically struggled to turn its massive developer base into significant income. The price reflects a bet on reach and influence rather than current profitability.
Why Nvidia Would Want It
Nvidia’s dominance rests on its hardware being the default choice for training and running AI models, but competitors including OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Anthropic have all been developing custom AI chips to reduce their reliance on Nvidia’s processors. Hugging Face hosts roughly 2.5 million open AI models and more than 13 million registered users, giving whoever owns it significant influence over where open-source developers build and how tightly that ecosystem stays tied to a particular hardware and software stack.
What’s Still Unclear
Because the deal hasn’t been formally announced or confirmed by either company, terms could still change or the talks could fall apart entirely. If it closes as reported, it would rank among the largest acquisitions in Nvidia’s history.
