Nvidia buys Hugging Face for $12.9B
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The gist
Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion on Thursday. The deal tightens Nvidia's grip on open AI models, raising ecosystem concerns.
Background
Nvidia, with $197 billion in current assets and nearly $60 billion in quarterly profit, is on an AI spending spree, recently backing $500 billion in financing and a $105 billion data center. Hugging Face, a 10-year-old startup valued at $4.5 billion in 2023, hosts open AI models and is often called the 'GitHub for AI.' The acquisition is Nvidia's second-largest, after its $20 billion Groq deal, and signals its expansion beyond chips into the AI software ecosystem.
How it unfolded
- Aug 28, 2026Fortune reports Nvidia may acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, citing industry chatter.
- Sep 3, 2026Nvidia confirms the acquisition in a blog post by CEO Jensen Huang, stating Hugging Face will remain an open platform.
- Sep 3, 2026Nvidia files an 8-K with the SEC detailing the deal: approximately $11.9 billion to shareholders and up to $1 billion in retention awards for employees.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the deal will 'expand access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide' and keep Hugging Face open.
- Caution
- TechZine questions whether Nvidia can maintain openness while recouping its investment, noting the combination of open models with Nvidia's 'walled garden'.
- Analysts
- Seeking Alpha notes that Nvidia compute will not be required, suggesting the platform may remain hardware-agnostic.
Still unverified
The Information reported the deal last week, but that report was not confirmed until Nvidia's announcement. Some analysts question whether the deal will face regulatory hurdles, but no official concerns have been raised.