Nvidia has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for approximately US$12.9 billion, marking one of the chipmaker's largest acquisitions as it expands further into AI software.
Founded in 2016, Hugging Face has grown into a popular platform where developers and researchers can discover, share and test AI models and tools.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said in a press release:
"I’m excited to announce that NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12,930,300,000. Together, we will scale Hugging Face’s platform, strengthen its infrastructure and expand access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide.
"Over the past decade, Clem, Julien, Thomas and the team at Hugging Face have built something remarkable: a vibrant home for the open model developer community.
“More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use Hugging Face to share more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications. More than 200,000 companies use the platform to discover, evaluate, customise and deploy AI.”
The acquisition would bring one of the world's largest AI developer communities under Nvidia's control and give the chipmaker ownership of a leading open-source platform that competes with offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Nvidia is best known for producing the advanced chips used to train and run AI systems, with demand surging as companies race to develop and deploy AI products.
The two companies already work together to help developers access Nvidia's computing services through the Hugging Face platform.
Nvidia said Hugging Face would remain open to developers and that users would not be required to use Nvidia chips or services.
Under the agreement, Nvidia will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face investors and provide up to $1 billion in stock-based incentives to employees who join the company.
The deal could strengthen Nvidia's position in AI software as some of its largest customers, including Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI, develop their own AI chips.
Open-source AI models can be downloaded and adapted by users, unlike many AI systems controlled by a single company. Supporters argue that the approach can make AI technology more accessible to businesses, researchers and developers.
The acquisition would also give Nvidia access to one of the world's largest AI developer communities as competition across the sector intensifies.
Hugging Face was founded by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf. The company also provides datasets, software tools and cloud services used to build AI applications.
