Nvidia is said to have agreed a $12.9B Hugging Face deal

Nvidia has reportedly agreed to buy the open-model hub Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, according to The Information, as attributed by CNBC and Forbes. Hold the verb loosely: there is no signed agreement, no 8-K, and no statement from either company, and reporting on whether this is done or still in motion does not agree.

The instrument, and the dispute over its tense

The story is a reported acquisition, sourced to people with knowledge, not a filed or announced transaction. And the tense is the story. The Information framed it as Nvidia having "agreed to buy." CNBC's own source was more guarded, saying only that an acquisition has been "part of ongoing and recent talks," and CNBC notes a signed agreement has not been reached and the deal could still fall apart. Business Insider, which reported Hugging Face had hired a bank to gauge bidder interest, adds that Microsoft also met with the company, though those talks are not ongoing. So the range runs from "agreed" to "talking," and until a filing lands, the conservative read is talks, not a close. Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face has commented.

The number the headline leaves out: about 86 times revenue

Put the price against the business. Hugging Face was generating roughly $150 million in annualized revenue, per The Information. A $12.9 billion price is therefore on the order of 86 times sales, a multiple that only makes sense as a strategic bet on owning the distribution layer for open-source AI, not on the cash flows.

The valuation path underlines the point. Hugging Face raised $235 million at a $4.5 billion valuation in 2023, with Nvidia among the investors. In January it rejected a reported $500 million Nvidia investment that valued it at $7 billion. The figure now on the table, $12.9 billion, is nearly double that rejected mark in about eight months, and buys the whole company rather than a stake. For a platform that hosts the models but monetizes little of the traffic, that is a price paid for position, not for profit.

None of the cash-versus-stock structure has been reported. Two things then decide whether the 86-times price is defensible: whether Nvidia owning both the dominant AI-chip layer and the dominant open-model hub draws antitrust scrutiny, and whether Hugging Face's revenue can grow into a valuation set by strategic urgency rather than sales. Until the filing exists, the $12.9 billion stays a reported number, not a closed one.

For context, see our coverage of Nvidia's record data-center quarter and its $6B Poolside investment tied to a $1B license.