Following·since 23 Aug 2026·Day 5·9 sources·updated 29 Aug 2026

Nvidia's reported acquisition of Hugging Face

The gist

Nvidia Agrees to Acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 Billion

The deal would place the dominant AI model-sharing platform under the control of the company that makes the chips on which most of those models run. Separately, hyperscalers including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI are building custom silicon optimized for their own models, and one analysis reported that Nvidia's acquisition is aimed at keeping the open-weight model ecosystem on its hardware as those alternatives develop.

The full picture

Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the leading open-source AI model and dataset repository, for $12.9 billion, per The Information citing a person with knowledge of the deal. Neither company has publicly confirmed the agreement, and CNBC said it could not independently verify the report. The price represents roughly 86 times Hugging Face's reported annualized revenue of approximately $150 million. Hugging Face hosts over 2 million models, 1.5 million datasets, and 1.5 million AI apps, and functions as the primary platform for developers to find, share, and deploy AI models and datasets. One analysis reported that Hugging Face's Model Hub hosts over 3 million open-weight models. Deal talks reportedly began after Hugging Face received acquisition interest from an unidentified third party. Hugging Face had been exploring a sale above $13 billion, nearly triple its $4.5 billion Series D valuation from 2023. Nvidia had previously backed Hugging Face at a $4.5 billion valuation in 2023 and offered $500 million for a stake at a $7 billion valuation earlier in 2026, which Hugging Face rejected. Nvidia has invested over $40 billion in AI equity deals in 2026, including a $30 billion stake in OpenAI.

How it developed

29 August 2026

Two analyses published August 28 added strategic rationale to the reported $12.9 billion Nvidia acquisition of Hugging Face.

Transformer News wrote that the deal is intended to help Nvidia compete against closed-source AI model developers. A separate analysis framed it as Nvidia's move to keep open-weight model developers tied to its hardware as hyperscalers including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI build custom chips for their own models, and counted over 3 million open-weight models on Hugging Face's platform.

First citedTransformer NewsSemafor Technology

28 August 2026

Additional reporting frames acquisition as Nvidia's bid to stay the default compute platform for open-weight models as hyperscalers develop custom silicon

The Information reported August 27 that Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the primary platform for hosting and sharing AI models, for $12.9 billion, roughly 86 times the company's annualized revenue of approximately $150 million. Neither company confirmed the deal. CNBC reported that talks began after Hugging Face received acquisition interest from an unidentified third party and that the company engaged a bank to evaluate bidder interest. Nvidia had previously backed Hugging Face at a $4.5 billion valuation in 2023 and offered $500 million for a stake at a $7 billion valuation earlier in 2026, which Hugging Face rejected.

First citedRohan Paul Twitter The Neuron Zvi's AI Roundups Ars Technica AI+3

27 August 2026

The Information reports Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion

25 August 2026

Hugging Face's annualized revenue reported at over $150 million after a 50% jump in two months

23 August 2026

Hugging Face reported to be exploring a sale above $13 billion, nearly triple its 2023 Series D valuation

Sources

Rohan Paul Twitter

Ars Technica AI