Nvidia has agreed to acquire the artificial intelligence software platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion. The deal, one of the semiconductor giant's largest ever, aims to expand AI access for developers and institutions worldwide.
Founded in 2016 in New York by three French entrepreneurs, Hugging Face is used by over 18 million developers and hosts more than 3 million models. The final acquisition price represents a significant increase over the $7 billion reported at the basis of initial negotiations.
The acquisition reflects Nvidia's emphasis on open-source technology and its efforts to develop open-weight models and related services. By supporting open AI models, the company bets it can offset a potential slowdown in demand for its chips as other companies turn to open-source options to keep costs down.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that the company will keep Hugging Face as a neutral, independent, and open platform. The deal provides the chip giant with access to a massive repository of open-source AI models and data sets, further cementing Nvidia's growing role in Silicon Valley.