Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, report says

Nvidia has agreed to buy open-source platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person with knowledge of the deal.Deal talks began after Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform developers use to collaborate, test and share tools, received acquisition interest from another suitor, according to The Information.Business Insider separately reported that Nvidia had been "in talks" to acquire Hugging Face. The outlet reported last week that Hugging Face has been working with a bank to evaluate bidders' interest in the startup, citing people familiar with the matter.CNBC could not independently verify the report. Hugging Face and Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.If completed, the acquisition would put one of the most widely used platforms for sharing and working with open-source AI models under Nvidia's ownership, expanding the chipmaker's reach further into the software and model ecosystem.Nvidia, whose blockbuster earnings Wednesday prompted shares to rise 4% in after-hours trading, has made a series of deals in the past year, including a $20 billion licensing deal with AI chip startup Groq.Siddy Jobe, a fund mana...