Nvidia's $13 Billion Hugging Face Bet Reveals Jensen Huang's Vision for the Next AI Battleground
Good morning. Nvidia will pay $12.93 billion for Hugging Face, which is generating roughly $150 million in annualized revenue. At about 86 times revenue, the price makes clear that Nvidia values Hugging Face less for the business it is today than for the strategic position it occupies at the center of open-source AI.
TL;DR
- Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $12.93 billion.
- Hugging Face has roughly $150 million in annualized revenue.
- The acquisition is valued at about 86 times revenue, emphasizing strategic importance over current business.
- Hugging Face is a central platform for open-source AI models, datasets, and applications, used by over 18 million developers.
- Nvidia gains a significant foothold in open-source AI, challenging closed systems.
- Hugging Face will remain open, with Nvidia compute not required for platform use.
- Over 200,000 companies utilize Hugging Face.
- This is Nvidia's second-largest acquisition ever.
- The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027.