Why Nvidia's 'defensive move' to acquire Hugging Face is about much more than chips
CNBC · 2026-09-04
Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, making it the company’s second-largest purchase and a significant move to strengthen its position in the AI ecosystem. This acquisition places Nvidia closer to millions of AI developers and Hugging Face’s platform, which hosts over 3 million models and 500,000 datasets used by more than 18 million people and 200,000 companies. Analysts describe the deal as a "defensive move" to protect the open-model ecosystem that drives demand for Nvidia's chips and prevent a rival, such as Google, from controlling a strategically vital AI repository. The acquisition also grants Nvidia greater insight into trending AI models, datasets, and architectures, reinforcing its strategy to encourage a wide range of AI models.