Nvidia has been in talks to accumulate Hugging Face, the favored AI platform for sharing and constructing with open-source fashions, in what may very well be one of many chip large’s largest offers but.
The 2 events have had acquisition conversations in latest weeks a few deal that will value Hugging Face at more than $13 billion, based on an individual accustomed to the matter. The businesses haven’t but reached a deal, and the talks may nonetheless disintegrate, the individual stated. Enterprise Insider on Sunday was the primary to report that Hugging Face was fielding takeover curiosity.
Nvidia and Hugging Face didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Nvidia has increasingly ramped up dealmaking with its huge money pile. The corporate stated Wednesday that it has $18 billion dedicated to fairness investments for the remainder of its fiscal yr, on high of $47.9 billion it already holds in personal corporations.
Microsoft additionally met with Hugging Face, however the individual acquainted and a second individual stated talks aren’t ongoing.
Nvidia already has a relationship with Hugging Face. The chipmaker participated in its $235 million funding spherical in 2023 that valued it at $4.5 billion.
Hugging Face turned down a $500 million funding supply from Nvidia late final yr that will have valued it at $7 billion, the Monetary Instances beforehand reported. Hugging Face stated on the time it didn’t desire a dominant investor that would sway choices.
Hugging Face sits on the middle of the open-source AI ecosystem, internet hosting hundreds of thousands of AI fashions and datasets that builders can construct on. Proudly owning the platform may give Nvidia a much bigger foothold with these builders — and doubtlessly drive extra workloads onto its chips.
Hugging Face was based in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf.
However Nvidia possession may additionally complicate one in all Hugging Face’s strengths: its neutrality. The platform helps fashions and {hardware} from throughout the business, together with Nvidia rivals equivalent to AMD and Intel.
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