Nvidia has been in talks to acquire Hugging Face, the popular AI platform for sharing and building with open-source models, in what could be one of the chip giant’s biggest deals yet.<\/p>\n
The two parties have had acquisition conversations in recent weeks about a deal that would value Hugging Face at more than $13 billion<\/a>, according to a person familiar with the matter. The companies have not yet reached a deal, and the talks could still fall apart, the person said.<\/p>\n Nvidia and Hugging Face did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Nvidia has increasingly ramped up dealmaking<\/a> with its enormous cash pile. The company said Wednesday that it has $18 billion committed to equity investments for the rest of its fiscal year, on top of $47.9 billion it already holds in private companies.<\/p>\n Microsoft also met with Hugging Face, but the person familiar and a second person said talks are not ongoing.<\/p>\n Nvidia already has a relationship with Hugging Face. The chipmaker participated in its $235 million funding round in 2023 that valued it at $4.5 billion.<\/p>\n Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment offer from Nvidia late last year that would have valued it at $7 billion, the Financial Times previously reported<\/a>. Hugging Face said at the time it did not want a dominant investor that could sway decisions.<\/p>\n Hugging Face sits at the center of the open-source AI ecosystem, hosting millions of AI models and datasets that developers can build on. Owning the platform could give Nvidia a bigger foothold with those developers \u2014 and potentially drive more workloads onto its chips.<\/p>\n But Nvidia ownership could also complicate one of Hugging Face’s strengths: its neutrality. The platform supports models and hardware from across the industry, including Nvidia competitors such as AMD and Intel.<\/p>\n Want more Business Insider in your news feed?<\/p>\n \n Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you\u2019re searching for what matters.\n <\/p>\n Have a tip?<\/p>\n Contact Katie Roof via email at kroof@businessinsider.com or Signal at @kroof.26<\/p>\n Contact Geoff Weiss via email at gweiss@businessinsider.com<\/a> or Signal at @geoffweiss.25.<\/p>\n Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com<\/a> or Signal at +1-425-344-8242.<\/p>\n