SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face in a deal valued at approximately $12.93 billion. The deal was signed on September 2, 2026. Nvidia intends to pay around $11.9 billion to Hugging Face’s stockholders, with adjustments typical for such transactions. Additionally, the agreement includes up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards aimed at eligible employees. Nvidia anticipates completing the acquisition in the first half of 2027, subject to necessary approvals and closing conditions.
Hugging Face offers a popular platform used extensively for AI models, datasets, applications, and developer tools. Nvidia reports that over 18 million developers, researchers, and creators rely on the platform. It hosts more than 3 million AI models and about 500,000 datasets, supporting over 1 million applications. More than 200,000 companies utilize Hugging Face for tasks such as model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across various computing environments.
Post-acquisition, Hugging Face will continue providing support for developers using a variety of models, frameworks, cloud services, and hardware platforms. Nvidia clarified that its hardware will not be mandatory for using the platform. The platform will also keep hosting open-source and open-weight models from multiple developers and organizations. Support for diverse clouds and accelerator technologies will remain available. Nvidia also committed to ensuring continued compatibility with silicon products from other companies after the deal’s closure.
Open platform access will persist across different hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf. Since then, it has expanded from developing software tools into hosting models, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI services. In August 2023, Hugging Face secured a valuation of $4.5 billion after raising $235 million. Nvidia had an existing relationship with the company prior to the acquisition agreement, which included projects connecting Hugging Face users with 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 filing states that the acquisition is still pending and outlines conditions necessary for completion, including regulatory approvals and standard closing procedures. Nvidia also detailed post-closing commitments, such as ongoing support for models and datasets, multi-cloud capabilities, and support for hardware from other semiconductor companies.
Regulatory approval remains a key condition for the acquisition
Nvidia currently offers a vast array of AI resources through the Hugging Face platform. The company states it has published more than 500 models and over 250 open datasets there. It also provides software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their projects. Hugging Face serves a broad spectrum of clients, including companies, researchers, and independent developers, across various stages of AI development. These activities encompass model discovery, performance evaluation, system customization, and deployment of AI applications.
The completion of Nvidia’s acquisition of Hugging Face depends on meeting the necessary conditions and securing approvals. Nvidia projects that the $12.93 billion transaction will finalize in the first half of 2027. Under the announced commitments, Hugging Face will maintain support for multiple clouds, frameworks, inference providers, and hardware platforms. Developers will continue to have access to hardware options beyond Nvidia’s products. Until the deal is finalized, both companies will operate independently under the terms of the agreement.