Nvidia bets $13 billion on AI models with Hugging Face deal - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Nation and World News » Nvidia bets $13 billion on AI models with Hugging Face deal Friday, September 04, 2026 12:05 am FILE PHOTO: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a doorstep after attending the AI Ecosystem Reception in Tokyo, Japan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Manami Yamada/File Photo By ADITYA SONI, ANHATA ROOPRAI and HARSHITA MARY VARGHESE Reuters Share this story Nvidia will buy popular developer platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, using its growing AI war chest toexpand its influence in the booming market for open-source models that can nearly match the best from OpenAI and Anthropic at lower costs. The deal, one of Nvidia’s biggest ever, will bring the chip giant closer to the developers who use Hugging Face to find models and tools, potentially helping it create a pipeline of customers that may buy its processors to run AI services. ADVERTISING It marks the company’s latest effort to use its surging cash pile, totaling more than $22 billion at the end of July, to broaden its customer base when clients such as Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft are developing their own AI chips to reduce their reliance on Nvidia. The chip giant’s increasing investments, sometimes in its own customers, have, however, sparked investor fears the $5.4 trillion company could be artificially inflating valuations and contributing to a bubble in the industry. Open models “broaden access to AI and help ensure that AI leadership is distributed across companies, institutions and communities,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Thursday. “They enable organizations to match the right model to the right job.” Unlike the closed systems built by OpenAI and Anthropic, open models can be freely downloaded, run and customized by developers. Demand for such models has surged as businesses balk at the steep bill of deploying the technology, with Chinese companies such as DeepSeek and Z.ai emerging as crucial players. Seeking to assure developers that Nvidia’s involvement would not alter their access to models, Huang said that “Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem.” He added that developers could choose their preferred models, chips and cloud platforms. Nvidia will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face investors under the deal, while offering an equity-based retention program of up to $1 billion for staff who join Nvidia. The two companies already work together to help developers use Nvidia’s computing services on the platform. Some analysts and developers said they were concerned that Nvidia may gradually neglect rival hardware, making its chips the only practical choice for those building on Hugging Face. For Nvidia, building up open source may help it cushion a demand slowdown from some of its biggest customers. Related Articles Kennedy asked to remove Pennsylvania measles death from CDC tally, sources say WASHINGTON — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked his new CDC d... September 4, 2026 | 3 MIN READ Cyclosporiasis cases in Michigan climb to over 14,700, state health officials say Michigan health officials reported 14,718 cases linked to an outbreak of cyclospor... September 4, 2026 | 1 MIN READ News in brief for September 4 Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox News September 4, 2026 | 4 MIN READ Get the Latest News Subscribe to our free email newsletters for daily updates delivered to your inbox. View all our newsletters here . Most Popular 1 2 3 4 5 Featured Jobs Featured Jobs