NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the GitHub-like platform for AI and Machine Learning, for nearly $13 billion. The deal gives the chip maker control of one of the largest community hubs for AI developers. NVIDIA is aiming to strengthen its connection to millions of programmers who create and share machine learning models every day.
NVIDIA will keep Hugging Face an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem
For those unaware, Hugging Face serves as a main hub where developers share more than three million models and large datasets. The open platform currently supports over 18 million creators who rely on its tools to create new applications. A buyout could change how the platform operates, worry many users in the tech community.
However, in a press release, NVIDIA has confirmed that Hugging Face will remain an open platform for all developers. Furthermore, the chip giant stated that users can still choose their preferred cloud providers, frameworks, and even computing platforms without any restrictions.
It’s worth mentioning that the NVIDIA and Hugging Face deal is not going to force developers to use any specific hardware to build or run their projects. Hugging Face will continue to operate under its own identity until both companies finalize the deal.
“Hugging Face will continue to support open-source and open-weight models from across the ecosystem, from every model builder. It will continue to support multi-cloud and multi-accelerator development and deployment, so builders can use the hardware and infrastructure that best fit their work”, NVIDIA said in a statement.
The massive deal highlights NVIDIA’s major focus on software developers
At $12.93 billion, NVIDIA paid a humongous sum to acquire Hugging Face, especially when compared to the startup’s estimated $150 million in annual revenue. It appears that after hardware, NVIDIA is focusing on the software segment. The company is paying a huge sum for strategic success rather than looking for profits immediately.
By acquiring the developer-centric platform, the chip giant is gaining direct access to AI software builders. Besides, NVIDIA is heavily investing in model development. The company also struck a $6 billion deal with coding startup Poolside last month to develop an open model.
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