Nvidia just bought Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. That’s what Reuters says The Information says. The latter is behind an expensive paywall, so I’ll take Reuters’ word for it.
In The Price Of Independence Was $5.9 Billion, AI Secret says,
🌍 How this hits reality: Last year, Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia at a $7 billion valuation. The stated reason was protecting the community from a single company’s influence. This month, Nvidia offered $12.9 billion for the whole thing. Hugging Face said yes. The principle did not change. The price did. Every speech about community independence has a number. Hugging Face just found it. The open-source AI world now has a landlord, and the rent was $5.9 billion above the original offer.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Hugging Face said no to Nvidia at $5 billion. It said yes at $12.9 billion. The difference is not a change of heart. It is a reminder that every community’s independence is for sale. The only question is the price.
Sounds like Microsoft’s purchase of GitHub.
GitHub is a place where developers put code, while Hugging Face is a place where developers put models. If that’s not an exact analogy, it’s close enough, or Hugging Face wouldn’t be called “the GitHub of AI.“
Microsoft seems to have done a good-enough job of keeping GitHub independent, or GitHub wouldn’t continue to grow. Will Nvidia do the same with Hugging Face?
What do ya’ll think?
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