Deal brings the chip giant even closer to the AI developer community; Hugging Face will continue operating as an open platform
Nvidia announced Thursday, September 3, that it is acquiring Hugging Face, one of the world’s leading platforms for developing and sharing artificial intelligence tools.
The deal is valued at approximately $13 billion and marks another move by Nvidia to expand its presence in the AI market beyond chip manufacturing.
What is Hugging Face?
Hugging Face operates as a major platform and community for artificial intelligence. Developers and companies use it to share, test and develop AI models, datasets and applications.
According to information released by the companies, the platform is used by more than 18 million developers and 200,000 companies.
Even after the acquisition, Nvidia says Hugging Face will continue operating as an open platform, allowing developers to choose among different models, cloud services and types of hardware.
Nvidia expands its presence in the AI market
The acquisition comes at a time when some of Nvidia’s biggest customers, including major technology companies, are investing in developing their own chips.
By moving closer to the community that develops artificial intelligence applications, Nvidia could expand its influence into another part of the AI market.
The deal includes approximately $11.9 billion in cash for Hugging Face investors, along with up to $1 billion in stock-based incentives aimed at retaining employees.
Deal also raises questions
The acquisition could raise questions about the platform’s independence. One concern among analysts is whether Hugging Face, under Nvidia’s ownership, could favor the company’s chips over hardware made by competitors.
Nvidia says it will keep the platform open and will not require developers to use its processors.
Nvidia shares closed Thursday up about 1.8%, as technology stocks advanced on Wall Street.
Source: Associated Press and Reuters
