SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face in a transaction valued at around $12.93 billion. The companies finalized the deal on September 2, 2026, with Nvidia set to pay approximately $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, subject to customary adjustments. The agreement also includes up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for eligible employees. Nvidia anticipates completing the acquisition in the first half of 2027, contingent upon necessary approvals and closing conditions.
Hugging Face offers a popular platform for AI models, datasets, applications, and developer tools, with more than 18 million users including developers, researchers, and creators, according to Nvidia. The platform hosts over 3 million AI models, about 500,000 datasets, and supports over 1 million applications. It is utilized by over 200,000 companies for tasks such as model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across various computing environments. Nvidia states that the platform will continue supporting different models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms without hardware requirements. The service will also persist in hosting open-source and open-weight models from numerous developers and organizations, maintaining support for multiple clouds and accelerator technologies. Nvidia has further committed to ensuring continued compatibility with silicon products from companies other than Nvidia after the deal’s completion.
Open platform access across hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, initially focusing on software tools before expanding into model hosting, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI development services. In August 2023, Hugging Face reached a valuation of $4.5 billion after raising $235 million in funding. Nvidia had an existing relationship with the company prior to signing the acquisition, 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, confirming that the acquisition remains pending. The filing outlines conditions that must be fulfilled before closing, including regulatory approvals and customary closing provisions. Nvidia separately outlined commitments for Hugging Face’s post-acquisition operations, emphasizing ongoing model and dataset support, multi-cloud functionality, and continued support for hardware accelerators from other semiconductor manufacturers.
Regulatory approval needed for completion
Nvidia already distributes an extensive range of AI resources via the Hugging Face platform, including over 500 published models and more than 250 open datasets. The company also offers software libraries and development tools that users can customize for their projects. Hugging Face provides services to companies, researchers, and independent developers throughout various stages of AI development, including model discovery, performance evaluation, system customization, and AI application deployment.
The acquisition by Nvidia will only be finalized once all required conditions and approvals are met, with the transaction expected to conclude in the first half of 2027 at the earliest. Under the terms announced, Hugging Face will continue supporting multiple cloud environments, frameworks, inference providers, and computing platforms. Developers will also retain access to hardware options beyond Nvidia’s. Until the closing, Nvidia and Hugging Face will operate independently under the terms of their agreement.