Nvidia Reportedly Closing In on a $13 Billion Deal to Own the “GitHub of AI”

Nvidia has been in active talks to acquire Hugging Face, the AI platform often described as the “GitHub of AI,” in a deal that could value the company at more than $13 billion, Business Insider reported.

The conversations, described as serious and ongoing over recent weeks, would mark one of Nvidia’s largest acquisitions to date if finalized, though no agreement has been confirmed and terms could still shift.

Subsequent reports on the discussions noted that no formal deal has been announced by either company as of Thursday.

Hugging Face’s Valuation Has Nearly Tripled Since 2023

The reported price is the real headline here. 

Hugging Face last raised outside capital in 2023 through a $235 million round led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Google, Amazon, and other investors, at a $4.5 billion valuation.

A $13 billion price would value the company at nearly three times that figure, reflecting its rapid commercial growth. 

Hugging Face recently crossed a $100 million annual revenue run rate, driven by growing use of its hosted models, datasets, and open-source tools. However, just weeks later, the company faced a high-profile autonomous AI agent breach. 

Business Insider reported that Hugging Face hired an investment bank to gauge interest from potential acquirers, suggesting the company is seriously considering a sale rather than simply receiving unsolicited offers.

Nvidia Already Tried and Was Turned Down Once

Nvidia’s interest in Hugging Face isn’t new. 

Earlier this year, the chipmaker offered roughly $500 million for a stake that would have valued Hugging Face at about $7 billion, an offer the startup declined at the time. 

That rejection makes the current reported figure notable. Hugging Face’s nearly $6 billion valuation increase in just months appears to have changed the thinking around an outright sale rather than another funding round.

Reuters links the renewed talks to Nvidia’s broader acquisition push this year. 

The chipmaker has been buying AI infrastructure and tooling companies to expand beyond supplying the hardware and gain more ownership across the AI stack it already dominates on the silicon side.

This strategy also extends to financing, as the company’s equity stake in OpenAI’s Ohio data center builder shows how broadly it is securing its position across the AI ecosystem. 

Owning the Platform Matters More Than the Price Tag

The bigger story isn’t the $13 billion figure, but what Nvidia would actually be buying. 

Hugging Face isn’t a chip company or artificial intelligence model developer. It is a major platform where millions of developers discover, test, and deploy AI models, many already running on Nvidia hardware.

Owning that platform would give Nvidia more influence over model distribution, shifting its role from selling the infrastructure to shaping where developers go first.

It also explains why Hugging Face, which rejected a $500 million minority investment to avoid one dominant investor influencing its direction, might now consider an outright sale. 

At nearly three times its previous valuation, selling may be harder to ignore.

If the deal closes, it would signal that AI’s next battle isn’t just about faster chips, but also about who controls the platforms developers can’t work without.

Source: Nvidia has been in talks to acquire Hugging Face for more than $13 billion