Nvidia to Acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B, Expanding Control of Open-Source AI
NVDA sits 30% above its 52-week low of $164.07.
Summary
Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the open-source AI model repository, for $12.9 billion. The deal gives Nvidia control of a platform with 13 million users that hosts open-source LLMs and datasets, and it comes as closed-source model builders like Anthropic and OpenAI explore alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs. Hugging Face's annualized revenue is only $150 million, so the valuation is a massive premium, but the strategic value lies in locking down the open-source AI ecosystem. This follows Hugging Face's earlier rejection of a $500 million Nvidia investment at a $7 billion valuation, and a recent report that it was exploring a sale at $13 billion or more. The acquisition would be one of Nvidia's largest, behind the $20 billion Groq deal. Nvidia's Q2 revenue doubled to $96.2 billion, and CEO Jensen Huang said the AI infrastructure buildout is at full steam, so this deal fits an aggressive expansion strategy. Watch for regulatory scrutiny given Nvidia's dominance in AI chips and the open-source model distribution angle.
At the time of this announcement, NVDA was trading at $213.62 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $5.2T. The 52-week trading range was $164.07 to $236.54. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 9 out of 10. Source: Benzinga.