History Says What Nvidia's Last Big Acquisition Became. Hugging Face Will Cost Nearly Twice as Much.
Nvidia announced a $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, nearly double its previous largest acquisition of Mellanox for $7 billion in 2020. While Mellanox's networking business grew into a $31.4 billion revenue line, Hugging Face currently generates ~$150 million annually at an 86x revenue multiple. The deal's success depends on Hugging Face driving developers toward Nvidia's hardware and software ecosystem rather than standalone growth.