Nvidia has agreed to buy open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, The Information reported, citing a person with knowledge of the deal. The move would extend Nvidia's reach deeper into the open-source model ecosystem, coming a day after the chipmaker's blockbuster earnings sent its shares higher.
Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, The Information reported on Wednesday. Neither company has confirmed the deal, and CNBC said it could not independently verify the report.
Hugging Face lets developers collaborate on, test, and share open-source AI tools. According to The Information, deal talks began after Hugging Face received acquisition interest from another suitor. Business Insider separately reported that Nvidia had been in talks to acquire the startup, and had reported the previous week that Hugging Face was working with a bank to gauge bidders' interest.
If completed, the deal would put one of the most widely used platforms for open-source AI models under Nvidia's ownership. That would expand the chipmaker's reach further into the software and model layer of the AI stack.
Deal follows a run of Nvidia acquisitions
The report comes a day after Nvidia's earnings prompted its shares to rise 4% in after-hours trading. The company has made a series of deals over the past year, including a $20 billion licensing deal with AI chip startup Groq.
Siddy Jobe, a fund manager at Eonopolis Exponential Technologies funds, said the move fits Nvidia's approach of not discriminating between closed and open-source models. According to CNBC: "I think Nvidia is very much a community, a platform-based company", Jobe said, adding that Nvidia wants to be integrated across the stack, from energy to foundational models to applications.
Hugging Face's recent hacking incident
Hugging Face was recently at the center of a hacking incident that raised concerns about the pace of AI development and cybersecurity. CEO Clément Delangue blamed engineering mistakes for the attack and said his company used an Nvidia version of a Chinese open model to resolve it.
Delangue told CNBC earlier this month that AI cybersecurity is set to become a huge market in the U.S. and worldwide, and that open models will likely lead that market.
Source: CNBC
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