OpenAI previously considered investing about $100 million in Hugging Face before Nvidia announces its plan to acquire the company for roughly $13 billion. According to reports, the discussions did not reach a final agreement and stalled at an early stage.
The story is framed differently across outlets, but both describe how the talks coincided with heightened deal activity around Hugging Face. Quartz says the talks between OpenAI and Hugging Face collapsed in the early stages, after which Nvidia later moves forward with its acquisition. CNBC adds that OpenAI’s early investment offer helped spark interest in bids for Hugging Face ahead of Nvidia’s eventual agreement.
Together, the accounts indicate that Hugging Face attracts attention from major AI players before Nvidia secures a deal. While the outlets differ slightly on emphasis—one focusing on a failed OpenAI negotiation and the other on the impact on bidding—they agree on the core timeline involving OpenAI’s early offer, the collapse of those talks, and Nvidia’s subsequent roughly $13 billion purchase plan.
