SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA / RankWire.AI / – Nvidia has finalized a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face in a deal valued at approximately $12.93 billion. The signing occurred on September 2, 2026. Nvidia will allocate about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to usual adjustments. Additionally, the agreement includes up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for eligible employees. Nvidia anticipates the transaction will be completed in the first half of 2027, contingent upon obtaining necessary approvals and fulfilling closing conditions.
Hugging Face provides a popular platform for AI models, datasets, applications, and developer tools used worldwide. Nvidia reports that more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators utilize the platform. It hosts over 3 million AI models and around 500,000 datasets. The platform also supports upwards of 1 million applications. Over 200,000 companies leverage Hugging Face for activities such as model discovery, testing, customization, and deployment across various computing environments.
Hugging Face will keep providing support for developers working with different models, frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms. Nvidia clarified that its hardware will not be a requirement for utilizing the service. The platform will also continue hosting open-source and open-weight models from diverse developers and organizations. Support for multiple clouds and accelerator technologies will remain intact. Nvidia has further committed to ensuring compatibility with silicon products from companies other than Nvidia following the completion of the acquisition.
Open access to the platform will persist across various hardware options
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf. The company expanded from developing software tools into hosting models, datasets, applications, and offering cloud-based AI development services. In August 2023, Hugging Face reached a valuation of $4.5 billion after securing $235 million in funding. Prior to signing the agreement, Nvidia maintained an existing relationship with the company. Their collaboration included projects that linked 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 document states that the acquisition is still pending and outlines the conditions that must be met before closing. These include regulatory approvals and customary closing procedures. Nvidia also detailed commitments for Hugging Face’s operations post-closing, such as ongoing access to models and datasets, multi-cloud support, and compatibility with hardware from other semiconductor manufacturers.
Approval from regulators remains a prerequisite for completing the deal
Nvidia already offers a vast array of AI resources through the Hugging Face platform, with more than 500 models and over 250 open datasets published there. The company also supplies software libraries and development tools that users can modify for their projects. Hugging Face serves businesses, researchers, and independent developers across various stages of AI development, including model discovery, performance evaluation, system customization, and AI application deployment.
The completion of Nvidia’s acquisition of Hugging Face depends on the satisfaction of specified conditions and approvals. Nvidia expects the $12.93 billion transaction to close during the first half of 2027. Under the announced commitments, Hugging Face will continue supporting multiple cloud platforms, frameworks, inference providers, and computing environments. Developers will retain the ability to choose hardware beyond Nvidia products. Until the deal finalizes, both companies will operate independently under the terms of the agreement.