Nvidia in Negotiations to Acquire Hugging Face for 19.5 Trillion Won

Nvidia has been negotiating for the past few weeks to acquire the open-source AI platform Hugging Face at a valuation of over $13 billion (approximately 19.5 trillion won). No final agreement has been reached yet, and the possibility of negotiations falling through remains.

Financial Capacity and Background

Nvidia is expanding its M&A activities based on its massive cash reserves. The company currently holds $47.9 billion in stakes in private companies and plans to execute an additional $18 billion in equity investments during the remainder of the fiscal year.

Strategic Significance and Risks

Hugging Face hosts millions of AI models and datasets, positioning it at the center of the open-source AI ecosystem. If Nvidia acquires this platform, it could secure a developer base and establish a foothold to increase workloads on its own chips.

However, Hugging Face's strength lies in its neutrality, as it also supports products from Nvidia's competitors such as AMD and Intel. Concerns have been raised that Nvidia ownership could compromise this neutrality and weaken the platform's competitiveness. Hugging Face previously rejected a $500 million investment offer from Nvidia last year.