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.
The chipmaker announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, a major platform for open-source AI models, datasets and applications. More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use Hugging Face, which hosts more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications, according to Nvidia.
The acquisition gives Nvidia a major foothold in open-source AI at a moment when open models are increasingly challenging closed systems from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI, as Fortune previously reported. Hugging Face, founded 10 years ago, has said it is nearing profitability. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Thursday that Hugging Face will remain open to the broader AI industry. “Nvidia compute will not be required to build on or deploy through the platform,” Huang wrote in a blog post.
More than 200,000 companies use Hugging Face, according to Nvidia. That broad developer and corporate reach is a key part of the strategic position Nvidia is paying nearly $13 billion to acquire. Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives, said the price reflects the scarcity of an asset like Hugging Face.
“Nvidia and Jensen see the bigger AI picture,” Ives told me, adding that “valuation is important, but there is a scarcity in the Hugging Face asset.”
The acquisition also shows how Nvidia is using the enormous financial resources generated by its dominance of AI chips to secure strategic positions beyond its core business.
The Hugging Face deal is Nvidia’s second-largest ever, behind its roughly $20 billion licensingand talent deal for AI chip startup Groq’s assets in December. It also fits with a broader investment strategy CFO Colette Kress has been outlining.
On Nvidia’s Aug. 26 earnings call, Kress said the company has invested nearly $50 billion in AI labs developing advanced models, calling it “a meaningful commitment” but “a small fraction” of Nvidia’s expected free cash flow.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, according to an SEC filing.
Quick note: The next CFO Daily will be in your inbox on Tuesday. Enjoy the Labor Day holiday. Sheryl Estrada [email protected]
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