Why Nvidia is ready to pay $13B for Hugging Face

Earlier this week, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion and make sweeping changes to how minors access its social networks to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states. But the eye-popping settlement figure wasn’t what caught the attention of the Equity podcast team. Instead, it was what Meta did next. The social media giant sent an open letter to TikTok and YouTube asking the companies to join it in setting industry-wide standards for teens, including daily time limits, blocking access to apps at night, and restricting notifications during school hours.

But will these other companies follow? The Equity team doesn’t think they will.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, and Sean O’Kane dig into the Meta settlement, what it could mean for other social media companies, and more of the week’s headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear more about: 

• How investors are pouring money into robotics startups and driving up valuations. For instance, Generalist reached a $3 billion valuation, while General Intuition hit the $6 billion mark.

• Even though robotics is a hot sector, there is pain point: robots still lack the know-how to do value-creating work.
• What senior reporter Sean O’Kane discovered when he dug into OSHA data connected to robotaxi companies like Waymo and Zoox.
• What self-driving truck startup Gatik’s $200 million raise means for the sector.
• Hugging Face is reportedly being acquired by Nvidia. The team weighs in what this means for the industry.

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