Nvidia is in advanced talks to acquire AI startup Hugging Face in a deal that could total around $14 billion, according to Bloomberg. The core deal is valued at $12.9 billion, with an additional $1 billion retention package for Hugging Face employees. A final agreement could be reached as soon as this week, although terms may still change. Hugging Face operates a major open-source AI model sharing platform and was last valued at $4.5 billion in a 2023 funding round, meaning a $14 billion acquisition would more than triple that valuation.
For Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the move would expand the company's reach beyond chips and into the software layer of artificial intelligence. Nvidia is already an investor in Hugging Face, alongside Google, Amazon, Intel, and Salesforce. The company has also completed other recent deals, including a $6 billion licensing deal with AI coding startup Poolside and a roughly $20 billion purchase of most of chip startup Groq.
Separately, Nvidia's market influence continues to grow. With a market capitalization of about $5.4 trillion, Nvidia now makes up roughly 8% of the S&P 500, near an all-time high. The company reported fiscal Q2 adjusted EPS of $2.22, beating the $2.09 consensus, and revenue of $96.22 billion, up 105.9% year over year and above the $92.27 billion estimate. Data Center revenue reached $89 billion, while Edge Computing brought in $7.2 billion.
Nvidia guided for around 70% revenue growth for fiscal 2028, far above the 45% analysts expected, though Jensen Huang noted growth could have topped 100% if not for memory chip supply shortages. Institutional investors own about 65.27% of NVDA stock, and ARK Invest purchased roughly $53 million of NVDA following the post-earnings dip. Insiders sold around 1.4 million shares worth $299.3 million over the past 90 days. Analysts have issued updated targets, with Benchmark at $335, Morgan Stanley at $300, and Goldman Sachs at $300, while the average price target sits at $324.23 with a Moderate Buy consensus.
