NVIDIA Corporation (), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face in a transaction valued at approximately $11.9 billion.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “NVIDIA signed the agreement on September 2, 2026, with the purchase price payable to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to certain adjustments.”
The transaction includes an equity-based retention programme of up to approximately $1 billion for Hugging Face employees joining NVIDIA following the acquisition and is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Hugging Face operates a platform and community that enable developers to build, share, and deploy open-source models, datasets, and applications. NVIDIA expects the acquisition to strengthen that ecosystem by providing additional resources while preserving the platform’s open approach and continuing to support other silicon vendors.
The company also highlighted regulatory risks surrounding open-source artificial intelligence, saying governments could introduce rules governing how AI models are developed, shared and deployed.
“Such restrictions could affect the models and datasets available through Hugging Face, require changes to the platform or its practices, increase compliance costs, or delay and restrict certain offerings,” the filing states.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA noted that several widely used open-source AI models originate in China before developers in the United States and other markets adapt them for their own use, adding that restrictions targeting models from particular regions could materially affect Hugging Face’s business and financial performance.
