Kevin Durant’s reported early investments in Hugging Face could now be worth more than $60 million after Nvidia’s roughly $12.9 billion acquisition of the company, an estimate from sports business investor Joe Pompliano suggests. The precise value of Durant’s holding has not been publicly disclosed, so the $60 million figure remains an estimate rather than a confirmed payout.
Hugging Face’s evolution and Durant’s early bets
Durant’s connection with Hugging Face began well before the company became closely associated with open-source artificial intelligence. Founded in 2016 and initially known for a consumer chatbot that let users interact with an artificial ‘best friend’, Hugging Face raised a reported $4 million seed round in 2018. Durant was among the investors in that seed round, reportedly investing $100,000 through Thirty Five Ventures, the investment arm associated with Durant and Rich Kleiman.
In December 2019, Hugging Face raised a $15 million Series A round led by Lux Capital, with Durant again named among the investors. Durant’s reported follow-up investment in that round was $150,000, bringing his early-stage reported total to $250,000. The company subsequently shifted toward open-source AI and machine-learning tools, positioning itself as a platform for models, datasets and developer resources used with AI models.
How the Nvidia deal affects potential returns
Nvidia’s transaction values Hugging Face at about $12.93 billion. The deal is expected to deliver roughly $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, while about $1 billion is intended for an equity-based retention programme. Based on the reported $100,000 seed cheque and the $150,000 Series A investment, Pompliano estimated Durant’s stake could be worth more than $60 million — roughly a 240-fold increase on the original $250,000 invested if the estimate proves accurate.
That calculation carries an important caveat. Startup ownership stakes can change across funding rounds, and dilution and other factors mean final proceeds for an early investor cannot be determined simply by comparing an early cheque with a company’s eventual acquisition price. Durant’s exact investment figures and any eventual proceeds from the Nvidia transaction have not been disclosed.
Durant and Kleiman also participated through Thirty Five Ventures in Hugging Face’s $100 million Series C funding round in May 2022, when the company was valued at an estimated $2 billion. Hugging Face’s list of previous backers includes Google, Amazon, Salesforce, AMD, Intel and Nvidia.
Durant and Kleiman have invested across technology, sports, media and consumer businesses through Thirty Five Ventures. The portfolio includes companies such as Whoop, Coinbase, Postmates, Robinhood and Acorns. Pompliano has also highlighted Durant’s early investment in Whoop, which was reported to be valued at roughly $125 million at the time of his investment and later reached a valuation of $10.1 billion.
What began as a reported $100,000 seed cheque in 2018, followed by another $150,000 a year later, could now represent one of the most valuable technology bets in Durant’s reported investment portfolio — if the public estimates are borne out by disclosed proceeds.
