Nvidia Corp. confirmed on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, that it has reached an agreement to acquire the artificial intelligence software platform Hugging Face. The transaction is valued at approximately $13 billion, with a purchase price of $12.93 billion. Following the announcement, Nvidia shares rose approximately 2% in early trading.
The deal marks a strategic expansion for Nvidia, which is a supplier of chips used to train and run AI models. Hugging Face operates as an open-weight platform where more than 18 million developers, researchers, and creators share over 3 million AI models. According to Nvidia, more than 200,000 companies utilize the site to discover and deploy AI technology.
The acquisition cost includes an equity-based retention program of as much as $1 billion for Hugging Face employees who transition to Nvidia. Justin Boitano, Nvidia’s general manager for enterprise computing, stated that the company believes in a healthy ecosystem of closed and open models and intends to maintain Hugging Face as an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted that open models accelerate innovation and allow various entities, including universities and startups, to customize AI technology.
The acquisition impacts the community of 18 million AI developers and 200,000 companies that use Hugging Face as a hub for software and models. Developers use the "open-weight" platform to download and modify models. Nvidia has stated it will maintain this openness.
The $12.93 billion deal represents a portion of Nvidia’s financial resources, with the company’s free cash flow projected to reach nearly $200 billion for the 2027 fiscal year. Barbara Doran, a CEO and Nvidia investor, told Yahoo Finance that the $13 billion price tag is "not a big bite" given those cash flow projections. Analysts such as Angelo Zino of CFRA Research suggest the move is intended to build an AI ecosystem as the company develops more capabilities beyond hardware.
The merger would integrate a repository for open-source AI into the company that produces the silicon required to run that software. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, though it remains subject to regulatory approval. Until that date, Hugging Face continues to operate as an independent entity.