Nvidia Agrees $12.9 Billion Deal to Acquire Hugging Face

Nvidia signed a definitive agreement on September 2, 2026, to buy open-source AI platform Hugging Face for approximately $12.9 billion, one of the chipmaker's largest software acquisitions.

Deal terms and timeline

Nvidia entered into a definitive agreement on September 2, 2026, to acquire Hugging Face, the platform and community for developing, sharing, and deploying open-source AI models, datasets, and applications. The transaction includes approximately $11.9 billion payable to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to adjustments, plus an equity-based retention programme of up to $1 billion for employees joining Nvidia.

The deal is signed but not closed. Nvidia expects completion in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions including required regulatory approvals. Mandatory Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification with US authorities and a European Union merger review are anticipated, and either could extend or block the transaction.

Why Nvidia wants the open-source hub

Hugging Face, founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf, has become the primary distribution point for open AI models. Nvidia said the platform hosts more than three million models and is used by more than 18 million developers and over 200,000 companies.

For Nvidia, the acquisition represents a strategic move into software and community layers that sit above its GPU hardware. CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face would remain an open platform and that Nvidia chips would not be required to build on or deploy through it. Nvidia committed to permitting model makers, developers, and users to upload and download models and datasets of their choosing and to support other silicon vendors.

Regulatory scrutiny ahead

Analysts expect antitrust review to focus on whether Nvidia could use control of the platform to favour its own hardware, inference endpoints, or model rankings. Consumer groups have warned the deal could affect competition worldwide if Hugging Face's neutrality erodes after closing.

Until the transaction closes, Hugging Face operates under its current governance, pricing, and library maintenance commitments. Nothing changes for developers today. The planning question is what happens if and when Nvidia owns the hub, at which point it will have discretion over search ranking, endpoint pricing, and investment in non-Nvidia deployment pathways.