NVIDIA to Acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 Billion
NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for approximately $12.93 billion, as announced on September 3, 2026, by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.
Deal Overview
The definitive agreement was entered into on September 2, 2026. The transaction is structured as approximately 1 billion in equity retention for staff.
Strategic Rationale
The acquisition aims to “scale Hugging Face’s platform, strengthen its infrastructure and expand access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide.” NVIDIA plans to improve platform reliability, safety, model evaluation, inference and deployment capabilities while maintaining the open ecosystem that defines Hugging Face.
User Base and Impact
Hugging Face serves a substantial developer community:
- More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use the platform
- Over 3 million models shared on the platform
- 500,000 datasets available
- 1 million applications
- More than 200,000 companies use the platform to discover, evaluate, customize and deploy AI
NVIDIA’s Commitments
NVIDIA commits that “Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem” and will continue supporting:
- Open-source models
- Multi-cloud infrastructure
- Developer choice in frameworks and computing platforms
Timeline and Strategic Context
Expected deal closure is targeted for H1 2027, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition represents NVIDIA’s vertical integration strategy, spanning from silicon and data center infrastructure to the marketplace where models are discovered, shared, and deployed, consolidating the entire AI value chain under a single corporate roof.
Significance
With this acquisition, NVIDIA gains control of the industry’s primary model repository, positioning itself at the center of the AI ecosystem and strengthening its competitive advantages across the entire AI development and deployment pipeline.