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# Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9bn
- URL: https://www.bushletter.com/nvidia-agrees-to-buy-hugging-face-for-12-9bn/
- Published: 2026-08-28T07:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T06:59:59.000Z
- Description: The deal is unconfirmed. A person with knowledge of the matter told The Information on 26 August 2026 that Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. As of 28 August 2026, neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face had issued a press release or filed an SEC report confirming the acquisition.
- Author: Editor
- Tags: Technology, US, Nvidia

![Takeshi Mori](https://res.cloudinary.com/dz77sb7j1/image/upload/v1774262608/bushletter/authors/takeshi-mori.png)

By **Takeshi Mori** · 2026-08-28

TLDR

Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the open-source AI model platform, for $12.9 billion in what would be its largest deal ever. Neither company has confirmed the deal publicly. The price is nearly three times Hugging Face's last valuation of $4.5 billion, set in August 2023.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01The $12.9bn price is nearly three times Hugging Face's last valuation of $4.5bn, set in August 2023.

02Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face had issued a press release or SEC filing confirming the deal as of 28 August 2026.

03Owning Hugging Face would give Nvidia control over the platform hosting more than one million open-source AI models.

04Four major antitrust bodies pledged in July 2024 to preserve competition in AI markets, signalling regulatory scrutiny ahead.

05The deal would surpass Nvidia's $7bn Mellanox acquisition in April 2020 as its largest purchase on record.

## What is known and what is not

The deal is unconfirmed. A person with knowledge of the matter told The Information on 26 August 2026 that Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.[\[1\]](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-agrees-buy-open-source-model-repository-hugging-face-12-9-billion?ref=bushletter.com) As of 28 August 2026, neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face had issued a press release or filed an SEC report confirming the acquisition.[\[2\]](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/?ref=bushletter.com) Until there is a filing or a public statement, every downstream detail, including price, structure and timeline, is single-source.

Treat the deal as probable enough to plan for, but do not restructure your model stack around it yet. The practical question is what changes if it closes.

## The scale of the deal

Nvidia's previous record acquisition was Mellanox Technologies, completed in April 2020 for approximately $7.0 billion.[\[3\]](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581020000052/form8-kmellanoxclosing.htm?ref=bushletter.com) The reported Hugging Face price is nearly double that. Hugging Face raised $235 million in Series D funding in August 2023 at a $4.5 billion post-money valuation led by Salesforce Ventures,[\[4\]](https://www.salesforce.com/news/linked-content/salesforce-ventures-leads-investment-in-hugging-face/huggingface/?ref=bushletter.com) making the reported $12.9 billion price a near-threefold markup in roughly three years.

Nvidia reported a record $96.2 billion in revenue for the quarter ended 26 July 2026\. At that scale, $12.9 billion is a meaningful but manageable bet. Nvidia already owns the hardware layer; Hugging Face gives it the distribution layer where developers actually find and pull models.

## The neutrality tension

Hugging Face hosts over one million open-source AI models on its platform, making it the closest thing the AI research community has to a neutral commons.[\[5\]](https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/2023-11/hugging-face-case-study-112023.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) That neutrality is the asset Nvidia would be buying, and the asset most at risk if the acquisition closes.

Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue has framed the company's mission explicitly in terms of openness. "We conduct our mission primarily through openness, which takes many forms, including public communication about the technology, open science, and open source," Delangue said.[\[7\]](https://huggingface.co/api/resolve-cache/datasets/huggingface/policy-docs/be7c8e9241323becab73dd4b772c3e03986aad1f/2023%5FAI%20Insight%20Forum%20Kickoff%20Written%20Statement.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) Delangue has also said that, as the fastest-growing open-source library of pre-trained models in the world, openness and access have been key to making systems work better for more people.[\[7\]](https://huggingface.co/api/resolve-cache/datasets/huggingface/policy-docs/be7c8e9241323becab73dd4b772c3e03986aad1f/2023%5FAI%20Insight%20Forum%20Kickoff%20Written%20Statement.pdf?ref=bushletter.com) Those commitments sit uneasily with ownership by the company that sells the chips every model ultimately runs on.

For Australian teams building on open models, the practical risk is platform dependency. A Hugging Face under Nvidia ownership could favour Nvidia hardware in compute recommendations, pricing tiers or model optimisation tooling. No such policy has been announced, and the concern rests on the structural incentive that comes with concentrated ownership, and builders should be mapping their alternatives now.

## Regulatory posture

On 23 July 2024, the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority issued a joint statement pledging to promote effective competition in the AI ecosystem.[\[6\]](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/leaders-justice-department-federal-trade-commission-european-commission-and-uk-competition?ref=bushletter.com) That statement was written with exactly this kind of vertical integration in mind. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said at the time that "fair, open, and competitive markets will help unlock the opportunity, growth and innovation that these technologies could provide".[\[8\]](https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc%5Fgov/pdf/ai-joint-statement.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)

A chipmaker acquiring the dominant open-model repository gives each of those four bodies a clear theory of harm: the same firm controls both the hardware a model runs on and the platform where developers discover and deploy it. Whether that theory survives merger review is a question for regulators. Nvidia's Mellanox deal closed in April 2020 with US regulatory approval after roughly a year of review.[\[3\]](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581020000052/form8-kmellanoxclosing.htm?ref=bushletter.com)

This article contains analysis and commentary on market conditions. It does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified adviser before making financial decisions.

SOURCES & CITATIONS

1. [Nvidia Agrees to Buy Open-Source Model Repository Hugging Face for $12.9 Billion](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-agrees-buy-open-source-model-repository-hugging-face-12-9-billion?ref=bushletter.com)
2. [Nvidia Newsroom](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/?ref=bushletter.com)
3. [Nvidia Form 8-K: Mellanox Acquisition Closing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581020000052/form8-kmellanoxclosing.htm?ref=bushletter.com)
4. [Salesforce Ventures Leads Investment in Hugging Face](https://www.salesforce.com/news/linked-content/salesforce-ventures-leads-investment-in-hugging-face/huggingface/?ref=bushletter.com)
5. [Hugging Face Case Study, Intel](https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/2023-11/hugging-face-case-study-112023.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)
6. [DOJ, FTC, European Commission and CMA Joint Statement on AI Competition](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/leaders-justice-department-federal-trade-commission-european-commission-and-uk-competition?ref=bushletter.com)
7. [Hugging Face AI Insight Forum Written Statement, Clément Delangue](https://huggingface.co/api/resolve-cache/datasets/huggingface/policy-docs/be7c8e9241323becab73dd4b772c3e03986aad1f/2023%5FAI%20Insight%20Forum%20Kickoff%20Written%20Statement.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)
8. [FTC AI Joint Statement](https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc%5Fgov/pdf/ai-joint-statement.pdf?ref=bushletter.com)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Has Nvidia confirmed the Hugging Face acquisition?

No. As of 28 August 2026, neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face had issued a press release or SEC filing confirming the deal. The story was first reported by The Information on 26 August 2026, citing a single person with knowledge of the matter.

How does the $12.9 billion price compare to Hugging Face's last valuation?

Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion in its August 2023 Series D funding round led by Salesforce Ventures. The reported acquisition price of $12.9 billion is nearly three times that figure.

Why do antitrust regulators care about this deal?

The US DOJ, FTC, European Commission and UK CMA jointly pledged in July 2024 to preserve competition in AI markets. A deal giving Nvidia, the dominant AI chipmaker, control of the platform hosting over one million open-source models raises a clear vertical integration concern across at least four jurisdictions.

What does Hugging Face actually do?

Hugging Face is an open-source AI platform where researchers and developers share, discover and deploy machine learning models. It hosts over one million models and hundreds of thousands of datasets, functioning as the main shared repository for the AI research community.

![Takeshi Mori](https://res.cloudinary.com/dz77sb7j1/image/upload/v1774262608/bushletter/authors/takeshi-mori.png)

[Takeshi Mori](https://bushletter.com/author/takeshi-mori/?ref=bushletter.com)

Takeshi Mori writes about technology and start-ups. He is curious about how products get built and who they are really for, and he would rather see a thing working than hear it described.

Important

This article reports an unconfirmed acquisition. Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face has publicly confirmed this deal as of publication. Valuations and deal terms are based on a single source and should not be relied upon for investment decisions until official confirmation is released.