Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Hugging Face deal: Open models matter greatly to our company

Nvidia’s $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face marks a strategic shift to solidify the future of open-source AI. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue explain that the deal was catalyzed by a growing need for open models to ensure data sovereignty and intellectual property protection for enterprises. While proprietary APIs like OpenAI remain vital for off-the-shelf utility, open-source alternatives provide a necessary path for companies in regulated or specialized fields to own and build their own intelligence. The acquisition aims to scale Hugging Face’s platform—which currently hosts 3 million models and serves 18 million developers—into a neutral, independent hub within Nvidia. By providing massive resources and stability, the partnership seeks to expand the global community of AI builders to 100 million, preventing the ecosystem from becoming a closed-source monopoly while accelerating AI advancement across robotics, biology, and physical sciences.