Nvidia to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion

Nvidia has reached an agreement to acquire Hugging Face, a leading platform for open-source artificial intelligence models, for approximately $12.93 billion. The deal includes roughly $11.9 billion paid to investors and an additional stock-based retention program of up to $1 billion for transitioning employees.

This acquisition marks a strategic shift for Nvidia, moving the company beyond its dominance in AI hardware into the realms of software, models, and developer infrastructure. Hugging Face serves over 18 million developers and hosts millions of models and applications. By integrating this platform, Nvidia aims to secure a deeper position within the AI ecosystem, influencing how developers discover, adapt, and deploy models.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Analysts note that the deal will likely face scrutiny from antitrust regulators due to Nvidia’s existing market power in AI chips. Nvidia has stated that Hugging Face will remain open to competing models, cloud providers, and software environments.