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Mergers & AcquisitionsMediumUpdated•Originally published 7 September 2026•Updated 7 September 2026•
2 min read

NVIDIA Agrees to Buy Hugging Face for $12.93 Billion, Targets 2027 Close

Key Facts

1The announced total transaction value is $12.93 billion.
2The structure includes about $11.9 billion for stockholders and a retention program of up to about $1.0 billion.
3Closing is expected in the first half of 2027 and remains subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
4NVIDIA committed to keeping Hugging Face open and supporting multiple silicon vendors.

NVIDIA entered a definitive agreement on September 2, 2026, to acquire Hugging Face in a transaction valued at $12.93 billion. The structure includes about $11.9 billion for Hugging Face stockholders and an equity-based retention program of up to about $1.0 billion for employees joining NVIDIA.

The transaction has not closed. NVIDIA expects completion in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals.

Hugging Face operates a platform and community for developing, sharing and deploying open-source models, datasets and applications. NVIDIA says the acquisition would give the platform additional resources and support developers building and deploying open models and applications.

NVIDIA has committed to keeping Hugging Face open under its existing practices, allowing users to upload and download models and datasets of their choosing while supporting other silicon vendors. The company also says the platform will remain multicloud and multi-accelerator, with NVIDIA compute not required to build or deploy through it.

NVIDIA says more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use Hugging Face to share more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications, while more than 200,000 companies use the platform to discover, evaluate, customize and deploy AI tools.

Strategically, the transaction would extend NVIDIA's reach from chips and computing infrastructure into an important distribution platform for open models and tools. That potential depends on closing the acquisition and preserving platform neutrality and developer trust; it does not establish claims of absolute dominance.

NVIDIA warned in its filing that new government restrictions on the development, distribution or use of open models could reduce content available through Hugging Face, raise compliance costs or delay services, limiting the acquisition's expected benefits.

NVDA closed at $230.36 on September 4, 2026, after trading between $229.63 and $234.76. That range alone does not establish investors' judgment of the transaction; the next milestones are regulatory approvals and progress toward the targeted first-half 2027 closing.