Nvidia confirms $12.9bn Hugging Face acquisition

September 7, 2026 at 03:05 PM2 min

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Nvidia confirmed it will acquire AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the AI ecosystem. The deal includes an $11.9 billion valuation and a $1 billion equity retention program.

Key Facts

Nvidia will pay $12.9 billion for Hugging Face, comprising an $11.9 billion valuation and a $1 billion equity-based retention program.
Hugging Face has more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators as users and over three million shared models.
Nvidia claims to be the biggest contributor to Hugging Face, having shared more than 500 models and around half as many open datasets.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and Nvidia warned in an SEC filing that government restrictions may negatively impact its business and the Hugging Face platform.

Deal Terms

Nvidia confirmed the acquisition of Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. The payout includes a Hugging Face valuation of $11.9 billion, up from its $4.5 billion valuation in 2023. An equity-based retention program of around $1 billion is also part of the deal. The acquisition, if closed, will be Nvidia's largest to date.

Platform Commitments

CEO Jensen Huang wrote that Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem. Nvidia's infrastructure, engineering and global reach will improve Hugging Face's reliability, safety, model evaluation, inference and deployment capabilities, Huang said. Hugging Face will continue to support open source and open weight models from every model builder, Huang stressed. The platform currently has more than 18 million users and over three million shared models.

Regulatory Outlook

A pending regulatory investigation will examine whether Nvidia's GPUs and software could receive preferential treatment on Hugging Face. Nvidia warned in an SEC filing that government restrictions may negatively impact its business and the Hugging Face platform. The news comes less than two weeks after reports of a potential acquisition began circulating.