Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 3
Nvidia Buys Hugging Face for $12.9 Billion as AI Spending Spree Accelerates
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 3

Nvidia Buys Hugging Face for $12.9 Billion as AI Spending Spree Accelerates

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 3

Summary

  • $12.9 billion will buy Hugging Face, a 10-year-old open-AI-models platform that was privately valued at $4.5 billion in 2023.
  • Nvidia framed the deal as part of a broader push to bankroll the AI ecosystem around its chips, using its balance sheet to support startups and help customers finance computing power.
  • That push already includes a $500 billion financing plan announced last month with six investment firms and up to $105 billion committed to back one of the world's largest data centers.
  • Nearly $50 billion has already gone into advanced-model labs, Nvidia said last week, a pace it argues is manageable with $197 billion in current assets, almost $60 billion in quarterly profit and $96.22 billion in revenue.

Insights

Will Nvidia's $12.9 billion buyout of Hugging Face secretly transform the open-source AI haven into a walled garden for its own hardware?
Could the recent hacking incident at Hugging Face be the ultimate catalyst driving Nvidia's push to control global AI infrastructure?
How does a hardware giant plan to leverage a massive software hub to stealthily build a $500 billion AI cloud empire?