SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has reached a definitive 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 stockholders, subject to standard adjustments. The transaction also includes the possibility of providing up to about $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for qualifying employees. Nvidia anticipates the deal will close in the first half of 2027, pending approval from regulators and completion of closing conditions.
Hugging Face operates a highly popular platform that offers AI models, datasets, applications, and tools for developers. Nvidia reports that over 18 million developers, researchers, and creators are active users of the service. The platform hosts more than 3 million AI models and roughly 500,000 datasets, supporting over 1 million applications. Additionally, more than 200,000 companies utilize Hugging Face for activities such as model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across various computing environments.
Hugging Face will continue to support developers working with different models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms. Nvidia has confirmed that its hardware will not become a prerequisite for using the platform. The platform will maintain its open-source and open-weight models from multiple developers and organizations. Support for various cloud services and accelerator technologies will persist. Nvidia has also pledged to uphold compatibility with silicon products from other manufacturers once the acquisition is finalized.
Platform accessibility will remain compatible across diverse hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf. The company expanded from providing software tools into hosting models, datasets, applications, and cloud-based AI development services. In August 2023, Hugging Face secured 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 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 that need to be met before closing, including regulatory approvals and usual closing provisions. Nvidia also detailed commitments to Hugging Face’s ongoing operations after the deal’s completion, including continued access to models and datasets, multi-cloud compatibility, and support for hardware from other semiconductor manufacturers.
Regulatory approval remains a key condition for the acquisition
Nvidia already distributes a substantial amount of AI resources via the Hugging Face platform, claiming over 500 published models and more than 250 open datasets. The company also provides software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their own AI projects. Hugging Face caters to companies, researchers, and independent developers throughout multiple stages of AI development, including model discovery, performance evaluation, customization, and deployment of AI applications.
The completion of Nvidia’s acquisition of Hugging Face depends on fulfilling the necessary conditions and obtaining approvals. Nvidia projects that the transaction will close during the first half of 2027. Under the announced commitments, Hugging Face will continue supporting multiple clouds, frameworks, inference providers, and computing platforms. Developers will retain the ability to choose hardware beyond Nvidia products. Until the deal is finalized, both companies will operate as separate entities under the terms of the agreement.