Nvidia to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion

Nvidia announced on Thursday its acquisition of AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, aiming to expand its presence in the AI sector. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed the deal, praising the investment as worthwhile. The deal marks a significant increase from the initial $7 billion valuation. Hugging Face, founded in 2016 by three French entrepreneurs, promotes open models that can be modified, contrasting with closed models used by rivals like OpenAI.

Nvidia intends to maintain Hugging Face's open-source nature as part of the acquisition. The AI platform boasts over 18 million users, who have developed more than 3 million models and over a million applications. Huang emphasized Nvidia's commitment to supporting open models, crucial for the company's growth, stating they will accelerate the AI community together.

Hugging Face's co-founder, Clem Delangue, confirmed the team will remain intact, joining Nvidia as an independently neutral platform. The acquisition comes as demand for computing power grows due to AI agents capable of autonomous task execution.