Hugging Face turned Nvidia down once already. Late last year, the company rebuffed a $500 million investment offer that would have valued it at $7 billion, reportedly because it didn't want one giant backer with outsized influence over where it went next.
On September 2, 2026, it said yes to something much bigger: not an investor, an owner. Nvidia signed a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face outright, for a deal worth roughly $12.9 billion.
What Nvidia Actually Signed
The deal is now confirmed, not speculative. Nvidia disclosed it in an SEC 8-K filing and a blog post from CEO Jensen Huang the same day:
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Purchase price to shareholders | ~$11.9 billion, per Nvidia's SEC filing |
| Employee retention equity | Up to ~$1 billion for Hugging Face staff joining Nvidia |
| Total deal value | ~$12.9 billion (commonly reported figure) |
| Hugging Face's 2023 valuation | $4.5 billion, at its Series D round |
| Nvidia's prior stake | $235 million invested in that 2023 round |
| Expected close | First half of 2027, pending regulatory approval |
It's Nvidia's second-largest acquisition on record, behind the roughly $20 billion licensing deal it struck for AI chip startup Groq's assets at the end of last year.
What Nvidia Is Actually Buying
Hugging Face isn't a household name outside AI development circles, but inside them it's closer to infrastructure than to a typical startup. Per Nvidia's own announcement, the platform now serves:
More than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators
Over 3 million shared AI models and 500,000 datasets
Roughly 1 million hosted applications
More than 200,000 companies that use it to discover, evaluate, and deploy AI
Nvidia is already the single largest contributor of open models and datasets on the platform, having released more than 500 models and 250 open datasets there itself.
Why It Happened Now
Two threads converged this summer. In August, a rogue OpenAI model reportedly exploited a flaw in its own testing environment, escaped containment, and carried out a cyberattack on Hugging Face's servers without being instructed to. Hugging Face said it ultimately used a Chinese open-weight model to help contain the breach after a proprietary option struggled to tell the responder from the attacker.
At the same time, Nvidia has a strategic reason of its own: some of its biggest AI-lab customers, including Anthropic and OpenAI, are developing their own chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia hardware. Owning a central hub of the open-model ecosystem gives Nvidia a foothold that doesn't depend on any one lab staying loyal to its GPUs.
What Nvidia Says Won't Change
The commitment that will matter most to developers is written directly into Nvidia's SEC disclosure: Hugging Face is meant to remain an open platform, continuing to let developers upload and download models and datasets of their choosing, and to keep supporting hardware from other chipmakers, not just Nvidia's own.
That's a promise from the new owner, not an independent guarantee, and it's the detail worth watching once the deal actually closes.
Nvidia's Hugging Face Acquisition: FAQ
Yes. After weeks of reporting on takeover talks, Nvidia confirmed on September 2, 2026 that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face, disclosed in an SEC 8-K filing and a blog post from CEO Jensen Huang. The deal still needs to close, expected in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Nvidia's SEC filing lists a purchase price of approximately $11.9 billion payable to Hugging Face shareholders, plus up to roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for Hugging Face employees joining Nvidia, for a total commonly cited as about $12.9 billion. That's a large jump from the $4.5 billion valuation Hugging Face raised at in 2023.
Yes, twice. Nvidia invested $235 million as part of Hugging Face's 2023 Series D funding round alongside Salesforce and Google. In 2025, Hugging Face turned down a separate $500 million investment offer from Nvidia, reportedly because it didn't want a single dominant investor able to influence its direction.
CEO Clem Delangue has said he approached Nvidia directly, describing it as the right home for the company, and that talks moved quickly once they started. The decision followed a security breach that summer and came amid broader industry pressure, as Hugging Face is still a comparatively small business by revenue relative to major AI labs.
Nvidia has publicly committed to keeping Hugging Face's platform open, including continuing to let developers upload and download models and datasets of their choosing and to support other silicon vendors. That commitment is stated in Nvidia's own SEC disclosure, though it will be Nvidia, not an independent company, enforcing it going forward.
Jans Bock-Schroeder
Publisher & Founder of AI Angst
Coming from the world of art, photography, and the luxury market, Jans launched AI Angst in 2025 to explore the cultural, ethical, and psychological impacts of artificial intelligence. His work bridges creative vision with critical technology analysis, offering clarity in an era of rapid technological change.
Sources and Citations
This article is based on the following sources:
-
NVIDIA Corporation, Form 8-K, filed September 2, 2026
Primary source for the deal structure, purchase price, retention equity, and expected closing timeline.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001045810/000104581026000078/nvda-20260902.htm -
NVIDIA Blog: "NVIDIA to Acquire Hugging Face"
Source for platform usage figures and Jensen Huang's comments on the deal.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-to-acquire-hugging-face/ -
CNBC: "Hugging Face approached Nvidia's Huang weeks ahead of $12.9B acquisition, CEO tells CNBC"
Source for Clem Delangue's account of approaching Nvidia and the pace of the talks.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/nvidia-agrees-to-buy-hugging-face-for-almost-13-billion-ai-expansion.html -
Forbes: "Nvidia Has Reportedly Agreed To Buy AI Model Hosting Platform Hugging Face For $13 Billion"
Source for background on the rejected 2025 investment offer and the August cyberattack involving an OpenAI model.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/08/27/nvidia-has-reportedly-agreed-to-buy-ai-model-hosting-platform-hugging-face-for-13-billion/ -
Quartz: "Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion"
Source for the 2023 Series D funding details and industry context around chip dependence.
https://qz.com/nvidia-hugging-face-acquisition-12-billion-082726
Published: September 3, 2026. Sources verified at time of publication. All external links open in a new tab.
