SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has finalized a binding agreement to purchase Hugging Face in a transaction valued at approximately $12.93 billion. The agreement was signed on September 2, 2026. Nvidia plans to pay around $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, with adjustments typical for such deals. Additionally, the deal includes the possibility of issuing up to about $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for eligible employees. Nvidia anticipates the completion of the acquisition during the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
Hugging Face manages a prominent platform that offers AI models, datasets, applications, and developer tools used extensively across the industry. Nvidia reports that more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators rely on this service. The platform hosts over 3 million AI models and nearly 500,000 datasets, supporting more than 1 million applications. Over 200,000 enterprises leverage Hugging Face for activities such as model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across various computing environments.
Post-acquisition, Hugging Face will continue supporting developers utilizing different models, frameworks, cloud providers, and hardware platforms. Nvidia has clarified that its hardware will not become a mandatory requirement for using the platform. The service will keep hosting open-source and open-weight models from multiple developers and organizations. Compatibility with various clouds and accelerator technologies will persist. Nvidia has also reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring compatibility with silicon products produced by companies other than Nvidia once the deal is finalized.
Open platform access across diverse hardware options
Founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face expanded from a focus on software tools to include model hosting, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI development services. In August 2023, the company achieved a valuation of $4.5 billion following a funding round that raised $235 million. Nvidia had an existing partnership with Hugging Face prior to the acquisition agreement, involving projects that connected Nvidia’s computing resources and software with Hugging Face users.
Nvidia reported 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 process is still pending, outlining conditions that must be fulfilled before closing. These include regulatory approvals and standard closing provisions. Nvidia also outlined its commitments to Hugging Face’s operations post-closing, including ongoing access to models and datasets, multi-cloud support, and compatibility with hardware from other semiconductor manufacturers.
Regulatory approval required to finalize acquisition
Nvidia already offers a vast array of AI resources through Hugging Face, claiming to have published over 500 models and more than 250 open datasets on the platform. It also provides software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their own needs. Hugging Face caters to companies, researchers, and independent developers at various stages of AI development, including model discovery, performance evaluation, customization, and AI application deployment.
The completion of Nvidia’s acquisition of Hugging Face depends on the fulfillment of necessary conditions and approvals. Nvidia projects the deal to close during the first half of 2027, valued at $12.93 billion. As part of its commitments, Hugging Face will continue supporting multiple clouds, frameworks, inference providers, and hardware platforms. Developers will still have access to hardware options beyond Nvidia products. Until the deal concludes, Nvidia and Hugging Face will operate independently under the terms of their agreement.