Kevin Durant's early Hugging Face bet set for $60M windfall as Nvidia moves on $12.93B deal

Durant's 2018 seed and 2019 Series A stakes in Hugging Face

Kevin Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman, through their firm Thirty Five Ventures, placed $250,000 into Hugging Face across two early rounds: a $100,000 seed investment in 2018 and a $150,000 Series A investment in 2019. The reports, which surfaced on September 27, 2026, draw on sports-business investor Joe Pompliano as quoted by Celebrity Net Worth. No separate disclosure of Durant's later Hugging Face holdings is available.

How Hugging Face grew from a chatbot to an AI infrastructure platform

Hugging Face was founded in 2016 and initially offered a chatbot for interacting with an artificial "best friend." In 2018, the company closed a $4 million seed round, with Durant among the investors, before raising $15 million in a December 2019 Series A. The firm subsequently pivoted toward open-source artificial intelligence and machine learning, building a catalog of models, datasets, and applications used by developers.

Nvidia's $12.93 billion offer and how Durant's stake is valued

Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for about $12.93 billion, comprising roughly $11.9 billion to shareholders and about $1 billion earmarked for an equity-based retention program. Based on that purchase price, Durant's reported $250,000 investment could translate into proceeds above $60 million, according to Pompliano's figures cited in the reporting. The actual payout will depend on the deal's final terms and Durant's ultimate ownership share.

Durant's broader Thirty Five Ventures portfolio

Durant and Kleiman have backed other consumer and technology companies through Thirty Five Ventures, including Whoop, Coinbase, Postmates, Robinhood, and Acorns. An early Whoop position was described in the reporting as having grown to roughly $10.1 billion in value.

Deal status and what remains to be confirmed

The reports describe the Nvidia-Hugging Face transaction as an acquisition without specifying the deal's signing date, closing conditions, or regulatory review timeline. Confirmation of Durant's final proceeds will require the deal's closing terms and any post-closing equity distribution. No closing date was provided in the available reporting.