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What does $13 billion buy Nvidia these days? A bigger say in what AI gets built and what it runs on.
Business Insider reported on Wednesday that the chip giant was in talks to acquire Hugging Face, which hosts open-source AI models. That lines up with Nvidia's strategy as of late, as it has been beating the drum about open-source AI — models that anyone can use and build on.
Open models could stave off a future dominated by giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which create closed, proprietary models. If top AI labs dominate the models being used and build their own chips to run them — as OpenAI is doing with Jalapeño — they could eventually cut Nvidia out.
"Open source is an important counterweight to closed platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic," said Brad Gastwirth, global head of research and market intelligence at Circular Technology. "The more AI development stays open and fragmented across many models and developers, the more opportunity Nvidia has to remain the underlying infrastructure provider."
There's a more immediate payoff, too: selling more chips. Developers using models from Hugging Face have to decide which hardware and software to run them on, and owning the hub could give Nvidia more sway over their choices.
Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face immediately responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Nvidia could get more control over open-source AI
Nvidia has been circling Hugging Face for years.
It joined a $235 million funding round in 2023, and it distributes its own family of open models, Nemotron, on Hugging Face. Last year, Nvidia proposed a $500 million investment in Hugging Face at a $7 billion valuation, which the startup rejected, the Financial Times reported.
Hugging Face said at the time it didn't want a single investor wielding too much influence. That's because one of its hallmarks is its openness, with models that run on competing chips and cloud companies, including AMD and Google.
That makes a possible Nvidia acquisition a striking reversal, and it creates a tricky balance.
"The biggest risk is neutrality," Gastwirth said. "Hugging Face has a lot of value because developers see it as an open platform. Nvidia would have to be careful not to undermine that."
While Nvidia could get greater control over Hugging Face, it may have to use that control sparingly to preserve the openness that makes the startup so valuable.
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Geoff Weiss is a senior reporter on Business Insider’s tech team, where he writes about AI startups and Y Combinator, the intersection of AI and the media industry, and workplace dynamics within top AI labs and chip companies.Previously, Geoff was on the media desk, covering YouTube and Netflix, and themes like the intersection of Hollywood and the creator economy. His work on Netflix’s video podcasting ambitions and Mr Beast’s lessons for Hollywood won second and first prize, respectively, at the 2025 LA Press Club Awards.Prior to joining Business Insider, Geoff was the senior editor of Tubefilter and a staff writer at Entrepreneur. He graduated from New York University with a degree in English Literature.He can be reached at [email protected], on Signal @geoffweiss.25, and on LinkedIn. Have a tip? Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.Selected stories:Nvidia crushed its quarter — and CEO Jensen Huang said in a leaked all-hands that 'the market did not appreciate it'Nvidia will foot the bill for Trump's new visa fees. Here's what CEO Jensen Huang told staff.Massive AI salaries and RTO are fueling a real estate boom in San Francisco: 'It's going to rain money'The AI talent wars are ricocheting across startups. Here's how they're competing with Big Tech.
