SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has reached a definitive agreement to purchase Hugging Face in a deal valued at approximately $12.93 billion. The signing occurred on September 2, 2026. Nvidia intends to pay around $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, subject to customary adjustments. The deal also includes up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for eligible employees. Nvidia anticipates the transaction will close in the first half of 2027, contingent upon necessary approvals and closing conditions.
Hugging Face runs a popular platform serving artificial intelligence models, datasets, applications, and developer tools. According to Nvidia, more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators utilize the service. The platform hosts over 3 million AI models and approximately 500,000 datasets, supporting over 1 million applications. More than 200,000 firms leverage Hugging Face for activities like model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across diverse computing environments.
Following the acquisition, Hugging Face will keep supporting developers working with various models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms. Nvidia has clarified that its hardware will not become a prerequisite for using the platform. The platform will also maintain hosting open-source and open-weight models from multiple developers and organizations. Compatibility with different cloud services and accelerator technologies will continue. Additionally, Nvidia has committed to ensuring compatibility with silicon products from companies other than Nvidia once the deal is finalized.
Open platform access will persist across diverse hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf. Initially focused on software tools, the company expanded into hosting models, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI development services. In August 2023, Hugging Face achieved a valuation of $4.5 billion following a funding round that raised $235 million. Nvidia had an existing partnership with the firm prior to the acquisition agreement, with previous collaborations involving connecting Hugging Face users to Nvidia’s computing resources and software.
Nvidia disclosed the deal through a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 3, 2026. The document states that the acquisition is still pending and outlines the conditions necessary for completion, including regulatory approvals and standard closing provisions. Nvidia also outlined commitments to maintain Hugging Face’s operations post-closing, such as continued support for models, datasets, multi-cloud functionality, and hardware compatibility with non-Nvidia semiconductor companies.
Regulatory approval remains a key condition for the acquisition
Nvidia already offers a broad array of AI resources through the Hugging Face platform, claiming to have published over 500 models and more than 250 open datasets there. The company also provides software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their own projects. Hugging Face caters to businesses, researchers, and independent developers at various stages of AI development, including model discovery, evaluation, customization, and deployment of AI applications.
The completion of Nvidia’s acquisition of Hugging Face hinges on fulfilling the necessary conditions and receiving approvals. Nvidia currently expects the $12.93 billion deal to close during the first half of 2027. Under the commitments announced, Hugging Face will continue to support multiple cloud providers, frameworks, inference engines, and computing platforms. Developers will also retain access to hardware options beyond Nvidia products. Until the transaction is finalized, Nvidia and Hugging Face will operate as separate entities under the terms of the agreement.