Imagine Hugging Face rejected a $500 million offer from Nvidia to maintain their independence 👀

A few months ago, Nvidia offered an investment of $500M with a valuation approaching approximately $7B . It seemed generous, especially since HF's valuation was around ~$4.5B in 2023, and with secondary valuations, people are talking about numbers close to 5B during this period.

But HF said no.
The reason? They don't want a single investor to hold significant influence and start directing the company's strategy. They want to remain a neutral platform that serves the idea of AI freedom instead of becoming dependent on the interests of one player, with the goal of maximizing profit only.

They have a working Freemium model—most people use it for free, and about 3% of customers, usually large companies, pay for additional enterprise features. They say they were profitable in 2025 with their investment in data/datasets later.

Simply put, some people understand that independence is sometimes more valuable than money.

They believe that maintaining independence allows them to focus on open innovation, community trust, and long-term goals rather than short-term profits. This stance has earned them respect in the AI community, even if it means passing up large financial offers.

[Image: A graph showing growth over time]
*Alt text: A graph illustrating the company's growth trajectory over recent years.*

In the end, their decision reflects a core belief: sometimes, staying true to your principles is worth more than any amount of money.