Nvidia Seals the Deal: Acquires AI Titan Hugging Face for a Whopping $12.9B
In a landmark move that has shaken the artificial intelligence industry this year, Nvidia has officially announced its acquisition of Hugging Face, the world’s leading open-source AI platform, for a staggering $12.9 billion. The deal, which includes an additional $1 billion equity-based retention package for Hugging Face employees transitioning to Nvidia, is slated to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Hugging Face boasts a community of over 18 million developers and researchers, more than 3 million AI models, and a substantial client base of 200,000 enterprise customers. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, expressed that the acquisition will aid the company in “expanding access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide,” while committing to maintain Hugging Face as an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem.
This acquisition marks Nvidia’s second-largest purchase in its history, following its $20 billion acquisition of Groq assets in late 2025. Hugging Face’s valuation has soared from a mere $4.5 billion in 2023, highlighting the rapid growth of the open-source AI sector. Nvidia’s stock rose approximately 2% following the announcement, indicating widespread investor confidence in this strategic move.
The deal underscores Nvidia’s ambition to extend its reach beyond hardware and dominate the entire AI technology stack — from chips and infrastructure to model hosting and deployment tools.
Source: CNBC – Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for almost $13 billion