SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face in a transaction valued at about $12.93 billion. The companies signed the definitive agreement on September 2, 2026. Nvidia will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to customary adjustments. The package also includes up to about $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for eligible employees. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2027 after required approvals.
Hugging Face operates a major platform for artificial intelligence models, datasets, software libraries and developer applications. Nvidia says the service has more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators. The platform hosts more than 3 million models and about 500,000 datasets. It also provides access to more than 1 million applications used for artificial intelligence development. More than 200,000 companies use Hugging Face services to discover, test, customize and deploy AI systems across different computing environments.
The companies said Hugging Face will remain open to multiple models, frameworks, cloud services and hardware platforms after the acquisition. Developers will not need Nvidia hardware to use the platform. Hugging Face will continue supporting open-source and open-weight models from different providers. Its services will also retain compatibility with multiple cloud environments and accelerator technologies. Nvidia said the platform will continue supporting silicon vendors beyond its own products under commitments linked to the transaction.
Open AI platform commitments remain in place
Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf founded Hugging Face in 2016. The company later expanded its services across model hosting, datasets, developer libraries and cloud-based artificial intelligence tools. Hugging Face reached a $4.5 billion valuation in an August 2023 funding round. The financing raised $235 million from technology investors. Nvidia and Hugging Face had also worked together before the acquisition agreement through projects that connected developers with Nvidia computing infrastructure and software tools.
Nvidia disclosed the acquisition agreement in a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 3, 2026. The filing confirms that the deal remains pending and has not closed. Completion still depends on regulatory approvals and customary closing requirements. Nvidia also outlined operating commitments covering Hugging Face after the transaction. These include continued access to models and datasets, multi-cloud support and compatibility with accelerator hardware made by other semiconductor companies.
Nvidia targets first-half 2027 closing
Nvidia already maintains a large presence within the Hugging Face developer ecosystem. The company says it has published more than 500 models and over 250 open datasets on the platform. Nvidia also supplies software libraries and development tools that users can adapt for their own artificial intelligence projects. Hugging Face supports model discovery, evaluation, customization and deployment. Its platform serves companies, research groups and independent developers working across machine learning, generative AI and other artificial intelligence applications.
The $12.93 billion Nvidia acquisition of Hugging Face will remain subject to review until all closing conditions are met. Nvidia expects the transaction to close during the first half of 2027. Hugging Face will continue supporting developers across different models, clouds, frameworks and computing platforms under the announced commitments. The platform will also retain its multi-cloud and multi-accelerator approach. Until completion, Nvidia and Hugging Face remain separate companies operating under the terms of the signed acquisition agreement.