SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia revealed its intention to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion in a definitive deal disclosed Thursday. The agreement was finalized on September 2, 2026. Nvidia plans to pay approximately $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, subject to certain adjustments. Additionally, the deal encompasses up to around $1 billion in equity-based retention incentives for new Nvidia employees. The transaction is anticipated to conclude in the first half of 2027, contingent upon obtaining the necessary regulatory clearances.
Hugging Face runs a prominent platform for creating, sharing, and deploying AI models, datasets, and applications. Nvidia stated that more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators utilize this platform. It hosts over 3 million models, 500,000 datasets, and 1 million applications. Over 200,000 companies rely on its services for discovering, evaluating, customizing, and deploying artificial intelligence systems. The platform has established itself as a central hub for open-source and open-weight AI development.
In Nvidia’s view, Hugging Face will continue to be accessible to developers working with various models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms. Hardware from Nvidia will not be mandated for building or deploying projects on Hugging Face. The platform will also sustain its support for open-source and open-weight models from diverse developers. Nvidia confirmed that Hugging Face will keep supporting multiple cloud services and hardware accelerators, including ongoing access for users employing hardware from other semiconductor firms.
Agreement Ensures Hugging Face’s Open Ecosystem Remains Intact
Founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face developed software libraries alongside its hosting services for models and datasets. During its latest disclosed funding round in August 2023, the company was valued at $4.5 billion, raising $235 million from tech investors. Prior to the acquisition, Nvidia and Hugging Face collaborated on projects that allowed developers to access Nvidia’s computing infrastructure through familiar Hugging Face tools.
Nvidia publicly announced the definitive agreement via a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 3. The document confirms that the deal is not yet finalized. Closure depends on fulfilling customary closing conditions and securing regulatory approvals. Nvidia also reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining Hugging Face as an open platform, allowing users to upload and download specific models and datasets, and supporting hardware vendors other than Nvidia.
Regulatory Clearance Still Pending Before Finalization
Since its early days, Nvidia has established a significant presence on the Hugging Face platform by releasing numerous open AI models. The company reports more than 500 models and 250 datasets published there. Nvidia’s development of libraries and tools enables developers to adapt and build on its resources. Hugging Face offers infrastructure for researchers, companies, and independent developers working in artificial intelligence, providing model hosting, datasets, software tools, and cloud-based solutions for building and deploying AI applications.
The $12.93 billion Nvidia-Hugging Face deal remains pending until all closing conditions are met. Nvidia has assured that Hugging Face will keep supporting a broad range of models from across the AI ecosystem after the deal’s completion. Developers will continue to have options regarding models, frameworks, cloud services, inference providers, and computing platforms according to existing commitments. The platform will also sustain multi-cloud and multi-accelerator deployment options. Nvidia projects that the transaction will close during the first half of 2027, following the acquisition’s regulatory approval process.