Nvidia to buy Hugging Face for $12.93 billion
The chipmaker is buying the hub that hosts three million models, promising other accelerators stay welcome. Closing is planned for the first half of 2027.
Symbolic image: a person slides an accelerator card into an open server rack in a data center aisle as status lights blink along the front.
Nvidia is paying $12,930,300,000 for Hugging Face and says the platform will stay open to rival chip vendors after the deal closes, which it expects in the first half of 2027.
At a glance
- Price: $12,930,300,000, which Heise puts at about 11.2 billion euros.
- An SEC filing splits the sum: about $11.9 billion to shareholders, up to $1 billion into an employee stock program.
- The platform holds 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications.
- Nvidia counts 18 million developers and more than 200,000 companies as users.
- Closing is planned for the first half of 2027, pending regulatory clearances.
Nvidia is paying $12,930,300,000 for Hugging Face and says the platform will stay open to rival chip vendors after the deal closes, which it expects in the first half of 2027. Chief executive Jensen Huang announced the purchase on September 3, 2026.
An oddly precise number
Nvidia did not round. The figure is $12,930,300,000, which Heise converts to about 11.2 billion euros. An SEC filing, as reported by Heise, breaks it down: roughly $11.9 billion goes to Hugging Face shareholders, and up to $1 billion funds a stock program for staff.
The buyer is already a resident of the thing it is buying. Nvidia invested in Hugging Face back in 2023 and says it has published more than 500 models and over 250 datasets on the platform.
What $12.93 billion buys
Hugging Face is where much of the open model world is parked: 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications. Nvidia puts the audience at 18 million developers, researchers and creators, plus more than 200,000 companies.
Revenue comes from subscriptions and from fees for compute and storage, per Heise. That makes this a purchase of distribution rather than of a large revenue line — the shelf where developers decide which model they even try first.
The openness pledge
Huang says the site stays an open platform for the whole ecosystem. Developers are meant to keep picking their own models, frameworks, clouds and inference providers, and Nvidia compute is explicitly not required to build or ship through Hugging Face. Support for other accelerators and the familiar emoji branding are both staying.
How binding any of that is, the available sources do not say. Both describe an intention stated by the acquirer, not a commitment owed to the community.
Still unsettled
The deal needs regulatory sign-off and is not expected to close until the first half of 2027. Nvidia itself flags a risk that regulatory limits could narrow what Hugging Face is able to host, singling out models originating in China.
Two things this report could not check: how competitors, antitrust regulators and parts of the open-source community are reacting — a third intended source could not be retrieved — and Hugging Face's headcount or future leadership setup, neither of which appears in the sources that were readable.
FAQ
How much is Nvidia paying for Hugging Face?
$12,930,300,000, which Heise converts to about 11.2 billion euros. Around $11.9 billion goes to shareholders and up to $1 billion funds an employee stock program.
When will the Nvidia–Hugging Face deal close?
The target is the first half of 2027, and only once regulators grant the necessary clearances. Until then the acquisition is announced, not completed.
Will Hugging Face still work with non-Nvidia chips?
Nvidia says yes: the platform is to keep supporting other chip vendors, and its own compute is not a requirement for building or deploying. The sources describe this as a stated commitment, not a contractual one.
