Nvidia (NVDA) agreed to purchase Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.
Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement on Thursday. Nvidia (NVDA) compute will not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face.
The deal includes an ~$11.9 billion purchase price payable to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to certain adjustments, and an equity-based retention program of up to approximately $1.0 billion for Hugging Face employees joining NVIDIA, according to an 8-K filing on Thursday.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
The acquisition will be Huang’s biggest move yet to broaden the adoption of AI and expand the company’s customer base.
Hugging Face operates a key platform where developers share and access AI models, giving Nvidia control of an important hub for open-source AI development. Huang has advocated for open-source AI as a way to broaden access to the technology and prevent the industry from becoming concentrated among a handful of large companies.
Nvidia (NVDA) is already an investor in Hugging Face alongside Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), and Salesforce (CRM), among others. It was founded in 2016 and was valued at $4.5B in a funding round three years ago.