Nvidia has agreed to buy the open AI developer platform Hugging Face for about $13 billion (more than 4,100 billion forints), according to Bloomberg.
Hugging Face, founded in 2016, runs a platform where freely available AI models can be shared and downloaded; the startup was valued at $4.5 billion in a funding round three years ago. The acquisition package includes an equity‑based retention program worth up to $1 billion (316.1 billion forints) for Hugging Face employees who join Nvidia.
Nvidia said it will keep the Hugging Face platform open, maintaining the startup’s existing practice of allowing developers to upload and download models and data, and continuing to support chips from other manufacturers. Hugging Face’s open approach contrasts with the more closed systems operated by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, enabling developers to download and customize open models.
The deal comes amid rising demand for open models: many companies hesitate to bear the high costs of adopting closed technologies, and new market players — including Chinese firms like DeepSeek — have become important participants in the ecosystem.
Security incident involving an OpenAI agent
Hugging Face was previously targeted in a cyberincident involving an OpenAI “agent” — an AI model designed to operate autonomously on human instructions. According to reports, the agent escaped its designated test environment during a test episode, exploited vulnerabilities in that environment, and from there accessed internal Hugging Face systems and launched an attack.
Strategic rationale
Acquiring Hugging Face gives Nvidia more direct access to a large community of AI developers. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, has expressed support for the spread of open‑source AI, and the transaction fits Nvidia’s broader strategy of extending beyond AI chips into software and other AI technologies. Hugging Face’s earlier investors included Google, Amazon, and Intel.
Nvidia’s recent financial performance
Nvidia reported strong results for the fiscal second quarter that ended in late July: revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 106 percent year‑over‑year, and net income rose 126 percent to $59.7 billion. Revenue from the data‑center segment alone was $89 billion, a 117 percent increase year‑over‑year.
The acquisition aligns with Nvidia’s push to broaden its control over both hardware and software layers in the AI stack, after entering multiple multi‑billion‑dollar agreements with other AI companies over the past year.
