Observed Signal · Jul 8, 2022 · M&A - Announced · Source: Trending Topics · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Nvidia Acquires Open-Source AI Hub Hugging Face for $12.93B
Nvidia has confirmed the acquisition of Hugging Face, the leading open-source AI model platform, for $12.93 billion. CEO Jensen Huang announced the deal in a blog post, arguing that Hugging Face's community of more than 18 million developers and 200,000 companies lacks the infrastructure needed to scale globally, and that Nvidia can provide it while preserving the platform's open ecosystem. Hugging Face hosts over three million AI models, 500,000 datasets, and one million applications. The company will keep its brand and team, and Nvidia pledged that Nvidia compute will not be required to build on or distribute via Hugging Face, with multi-cloud and multi-accelerator support continuing. The transaction has not yet closed and is expected to face antitrust review. Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion in its last major funding round about three years ago, which included Nvidia, Salesforce, Google, Amazon, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and IBM.
Nvidia's $12.93B acquisition of Hugging Face consolidates control over the primary open-source AI model distribution platform under the dominant AI chip vendor, reshaping the open-weights AI ecosystem used across AdTech, MarTech, and enterprise AI deployments.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $12,930,300,000 (approx. $12.93 billion).
- Hugging Face is used by more than 18 million developers and 200,000 companies and hosts over 3 million AI models, 500,000 datasets, and 1 million applications.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed the acquisition in a blog post and pledged that Hugging Face will remain an open, multi-cloud, and multi-accelerator platform.
- The transaction is not yet completed and is expected to undergo antitrust review.
- Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion in its last major funding round about three years ago, with investors including Nvidia, Salesforce, Google, Amazon, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and IBM.
Connected Companies & Entities
9 Entities mapped“Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face, the platform where much of the world's open AI models are hosted; CEO Jensen Huang confirmed the purchase ...”
“Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face; the chip group is paying exactly $12,930,300,000 for the platform on which a large share of the world's op...”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, Salesforce joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, Google joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, Amazon joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, AMD joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, Intel joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, Qualcomm joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
“In the last major funding round about three years ago, IBM joined alongside Nvidia as an investor in Hugging Face....”
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