Nvidia bets on open source models, acquiring AI startup HuggingFace

Chip giant Nvidia is buying artificial intelligence startup HuggingFace for almost $13 billion, the companies announced Sept. 3, bolstering their stake in open-source AI models.

The move allows Nvidia, which dominates the AI hardware sector, access to the startup’s huge library of open-source models and datasets. HuggingFace CEO Clement Delangue said that his team approached Nvidia over the summer in an effort to expand their own computing resources.

"Together, we think we can make open source the default way to build AI, with the goal of empowering 100 million AI builders to own their intelligence rather than rent it," Delangue wrote in a post on X.

Open source AI models refer to systems that do not have fixed code or weights, meaning they can be used and altered by anyone. Frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic release closed source models, which are often easier to deploy and perform better but cannot be changed to act outside of their intended scope.

HuggingFace, a French-founded company started in 2016, was recently subject to an attack from OpenAI agents under testing. Delangue said he used an Nvidia version of a Chinese AI model to resolve it.

"Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/money/