SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia announced on Thursday its intention to acquire Hugging Face in a definitive deal valued at $12.93 billion. The agreement was signed on September 2, 2026, with Nvidia set to pay approximately $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, subject to certain adjustments. Additionally, the deal includes up to about $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for employees joining Nvidia. The transaction is projected to finalize in the first half of 2027, contingent upon the approval of regulatory agencies.
Hugging Face provides a widely used platform for the development, sharing, and deployment of AI models, datasets, and applications. Nvidia reported that over 18 million developers, researchers, and creators utilize the platform. It hosts more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets, and 1 million applications. Its services are also used by more than 200,000 companies to discover, evaluate, customize, and deploy AI systems. Over time, Hugging Face has established itself as a key hub for open-source and open-weight AI projects.
Nvidia emphasized that Hugging Face will continue to support a diverse range of models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms. Hardware from Nvidia will not be mandatory for building or deploying models via Hugging Face. The platform will also persist in supporting open-source and open-weight models created by various developers. Nvidia confirmed that Hugging Face will uphold support for multiple cloud services and hardware accelerators. This commitment ensures ongoing access for developers using hardware from other semiconductor companies as well.
Agreement safeguards Hugging Face’s open platform approach
Founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face has grown significantly. The company not only offers model and dataset hosting services but also develops software libraries. During its last known funding round in August 2023, it was valued at $4.5 billion after raising $235 million from technology investors. Prior to the acquisition, Nvidia and Hugging Face had collaborated on various projects, including initiatives that enabled developers to access Nvidia’s computing infrastructure through familiar Hugging Face tools.
Nvidia officially disclosed the definitive agreement through a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 3. The filing confirms that the deal has not yet been finalized, as it remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Nvidia also reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the openness of the Hugging Face platform under its current policies. These commitments encompass the ability to upload and download specific models and datasets, as well as continued support for silicon vendors beyond Nvidia.
Regulatory review still pending before the deal closes
Nvidia has already established a substantial presence on the Hugging Face platform through its open AI releases, having published more than 500 models and over 250 open datasets. The company also develops libraries and tools accessible for modification and extension by developers. Hugging Face offers infrastructure for researchers, companies, and independent developers working with artificial intelligence, including model hosting, datasets, software tools, and cloud-based resources for building and deploying AI applications.
The $12.93 billion Nvidia-Hugging Face acquisition remains pending, with final approval contingent upon regulatory clearance. Nvidia assured that Hugging Face will continue supporting models from across the AI ecosystem after the transaction is completed. Developers will still have options regarding models, frameworks, cloud providers, inference services, and hardware platforms under the commitments made. The company also plans to uphold multi-cloud and multi-accelerator support. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027 once the necessary regulatory approvals are obtained.