Nvidia is reportedly discussing or has agreed in some accounts to acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for about $12.9 billion, although neither company has confirmed the transaction and other reports say it could still fall apart. The deal could extend Nvidia’s influence from GPUs and CUDA into model hosting, datasets and developer workflows, while raising concerns about Hugging Face’s neutrality among competing hardware and cloud providers. NBA star Kevin Durant and other investors put a combined $250,000 into Hugging Face’s seed and Series A rounds; based on the reported valuation, their stake could be worth more than $60 million, or about 240 times the original investment, although ownership and payout details remain undisclosed. Hugging Face has also expanded into crypto through decentralized AI projects.