Nvidia is buying the AI startup that was hacked by OpenAI for nearly $13 billion

Nvidia announced on Thursday that it will buy artificial intelligence startup Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, a massive bet by the chipmaker to expand the reach of open-source AI technology .

Hugging Face, a service for hosting and accessing open-source AI models and data sets, has been in the spotlight recently after it was hacked by OpenAI models that went rogue during a testing incident.

The company has also been at the center of an industry debate over whether access to advanced AI technology should be available openly — or whether it should be “closed,” like popular models from OpenAI and Anthropic, and restricted to prevent misuse. Hugging Face said it was forced to use an open-source Chinese model to defend itself from the OpenAI hack because of restrictions in how popular closed models could be used.

Unlike closed models, open-source AI models like those hosted on Hugging Face allow companies and developers to download the parameters that determine how a model functions and customize them for specific purposes. By downloading and running the models on their own infrastructure, some believe it also makes customers’ proprietary or sensitive data more secure.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has spoken in support of open models, arguing they can improve safety and speed up innovation. The acquisition could also benefit Nvidia’s plans to secure its role as the technology backbone of the AI boom.

Hugging Face CEO speaks out after company hacked during OpenAI test

Huang said in a blog post on Thursday that by acquiring Hugging Face, Nvidia could expand access to the platform’s models to more developers and companies around the world. Already, Hugging Face boasts more than 18 million developers and researchers using more than 3 million models, as well as 200,000 enterprise customers. Nvidia itself has released more than 500 open models on Hugging Face, prior to the deal.

“To the millions of builders on Hugging Face: thank you for pushing the boundaries of what is possible,” Huang said in a blog post, reiterating Nvidia’s plan to keep the platform open. “Together, we will make AI more open, more capable and more accessible to people and institutions around the world.”

The chipmaker last week said its sales more than doubled in the most recent quarter to more than $96 billion. But investors continue to question whether the spending spree on AI infrastructure will continue, and whether Nvidia can stay ahead of a growing slate of competitors.

Nvidia has made major investments in propping up and expanding the AI ecosystem, including investing in AI labs and lending money to customers who buy its chips to build data centers.

Under the deal announced Thursday, Nvidia will pay $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders. The agreement also includes an additional $1 billion in equity to retain Hugging Face employees joining Nvidia. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of next year, according to a securities filing.

The agreement marks a significant jump from Hugging Face’s $4.5 billion valuation in 2023, following a $235 million funding round. Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia last year that would have valued it at $7 billion, wanting to keep its independence, according to a report from the Financial Times.

But Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday that he pursued the deal with Nvidia over the summer after realizing that open-source AI was at a “turning point and that it needed more resources, more scale, more visibility.”

英伟达周四宣布，将以 129 亿美元收购人工智能初创公司 Hugging Face，这是这家芯片制造商为扩大开源人工智能技术的影响范围而进行的一项重大投资。

Hugging Face 是一个用于托管和访问开源 AI 模型和数据集的服务，最近因在一次测试事件中被 OpenAI 模型入侵而备受关注。

该公司也一直处于行业辩论的中心，这场辩论的焦点在于，先进的人工智能技术应该开放获取，还是应该像OpenAI和Anthropic等公司的热门模型那样“封闭”并加以限制以防止滥用。Hugging Face表示，由于热门封闭模型的使用受到限制，他们被迫使用开源的中国模型来抵御OpenAI的攻击。

与封闭式模型不同，像Hugging Face这样的开源人工智能模型允许公司和开发者下载决定模型运行方式的参数，并根据特定用途进行定制。一些人认为，通过在自己的基础设施上下载和运行这些模型，也能更好地保护客户的专有或敏感数据。

英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋曾公开支持开放模式，认为这种模式可以提高安全性并加速创新。此次收购也有助于英伟达巩固其作为人工智能蓬勃发展的技术支柱的地位。

Hugging Face CEO在公司于OpenAI测试期间遭黑客攻击后发声

黄仁勋周四在一篇博客文章中表示，通过收购 Hugging Face，英伟达可以将平台模型的使用范围扩大到全球更多开发者和公司。Hugging Face 目前已拥有超过 1800 万开发者和研究人员，使用超过 300 万个模型，以及 20 万家企业客户。在收购 Hugging Face 之前，英伟达已在平台上发布了 500 多个开源模型。

黄仁勋在一篇博文中写道：“致Hugging Face上的数百万开发者：感谢你们不断突破可能的界限。”他重申了英伟达保持该平台开放的计划。“我们将携手合作，让人工智能更加开放、功能更强大、更易于世界各地的人们和机构使用。”

这家芯片制造商上周表示，其最新季度的销售额翻了一番多，超过960亿美元。但投资者仍然质疑，在人工智能基础设施方面的支出热潮是否会持续下去，以及英伟达能否在日益增多的竞争对手中保持领先地位。

英伟达已投入巨资支持和扩展人工智能生态系统，包括投资人工智能实验室，并向购买其芯片以构建数据中心的客户提供贷款。

根据周四宣布的协议，英伟达将向Hugging Face的股东支付119亿美元。该协议还包括额外10亿美元的股权，用于留住加入英伟达的Hugging Face员工。根据提交给证券监管机构的文件，此次收购预计将于明年上半年完成。

该协议标志着Hugging Face的估值较2023年45亿美元的估值大幅提升，此前该公司刚刚完成2.35亿美元的融资。据《金融时报》报道，Hugging Face去年拒绝了英伟达5亿美元的投资，该投资将使其估值达到70亿美元，Hugging Face希望保持其独立性。

但 Hugging Face 首席执行官 Clem Delangue 周四在接受 CNBC 采访时表示，他在夏季与英伟达达成交易，因为他意识到开源人工智能正处于“转折点，需要更多资源、更大规模、更高知名度”。