SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has finalized a binding agreement to purchase Hugging Face in a deal valued at approximately $12.93 billion. The agreement was signed on September 2, 2026, with Nvidia planning to pay around $11.9 billion to Hugging Face shareholders, subject to customary adjustments. The transaction also includes up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for qualifying employees. Nvidia anticipates closing the acquisition in the first half of 2027, contingent upon regulatory approvals and usual closing conditions.
Hugging Face provides a popular platform for AI models, datasets, applications, and developer tools. Nvidia states that over 18 million developers, researchers, and creators utilize 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 rely on Hugging Face for tasks like model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across diverse computing environments.
Post-acquisition, Hugging Face will continue supporting developers working with various models, frameworks, cloud providers, and platforms. Nvidia emphasized that its hardware will not be mandatory for service use. The platform will persist in hosting open-source and open-weight models from multiple organizations. Compatibility with different clouds and accelerator technologies will be maintained, and Nvidia has committed to ensuring continued support for silicon products from other companies after the deal’s completion.
Open platform access across diverse hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf. The company evolved from a software tools provider into a host for models, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI development services. It received a valuation of $4.5 billion in an August 2023 funding round that raised $235 million. Nvidia had an existing partnership with Hugging Face prior to the acquisition agreement, including collaborations connecting 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 document states that the acquisition is still pending and lists conditions such as regulatory clearances and standard closing provisions. Nvidia also outlined commitments to support Hugging Face’s continued operations, including ongoing access to models and datasets, multi-cloud support, and hardware interoperability with non-Nvidia semiconductor companies after closing.
Regulatory approval remains a prerequisite for acquisition completion
Nvidia already distributes a significant volume of AI resources via Hugging Face, having published over 500 models and more than 250 open datasets there. The company also offers software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their projects. Hugging Face caters to enterprises, researchers, and independent developers across various AI development stages, including model discovery, performance assessment, customization, and application deployment, such as AI.
The acquisition by Nvidia is not final until all conditions and approvals are satisfied. Nvidia expects the transaction to close during the first half of 2027 at the latest. Under the terms of the commitments, Hugging Face will keep supporting multiple clouds, frameworks, inference providers, and platforms. Developers will continue to have access to hardware options beyond Nvidia’s offerings. Until the deal is finalized, Nvidia and Hugging Face will operate independently under the agreed terms.