Nvidia to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B, vows to keep platform open

Nvidia ↘ 2.01% has confirmed its $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, gaining control of the open-source AI community's most widely used platform for sharing models, datasets, and applications. The deal, announced on September 3, represents Nvidia's second-largest acquisition ever, after its $20 billion purchase of Groq's assets last year.martincid

The acquisition gives Nvidia ownership of a platform used by more than 18 million developers, hosting over 3 million models, 500,000 datasets, and 1 million applications across 200,000 companies. The $12.9 billion price tag comprises an $11.9 billion valuation for Hugging Face — well above its $4.5 billion valuation in 2023 — plus roughly $1 billion in equity-based retention.zacks+1

Neutrality Pledges Face Scrutiny

The central question surrounding the deal is whether Nvidia will maintain Hugging Face's role as neutral ground for the broader AI ecosystem. CEO Jensen Huang wrote that "Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem" and will "continue to support open source and open weight models from across the ecosystem, from every model builder".techradar

Nvidia VP of AI software Justin Boitano emphasized that Nvidia-specific runtimes will coexist with open-source alternatives such as vLLM and SGLang, ensuring models can be optimized for all hardware. Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue echoed that message, noting that "the vast majority of what we do is open source — open models, open datasets that are by definition neutral".eetimes

Still, skeptics note that Nvidia now owns the storefront where its competitors publish and share their work. The platform gives Nvidia commercial leverage it did not previously have, including the ability to package Hugging Face access with its own compute capacity for enterprise customers.martincid

Strategic Implications

Analysts view the acquisition as a move to embed Nvidia earlier in the AI development workflow. Neostellar Capital principal Willy Lee told Benzinga that the deal is "less about NVIDIA owning open-source models and more about ensuring that, regardless of which models win, NVIDIA remains deeply embedded in how those models are discovered, customized and ultimately deployed".benzinga

Delangue said Nvidia's support will help Hugging Face reach its goal of 100 million builders, up from 18 million today. "We think we're at the inflection point for HuggingFace and for open-source AI in general," he said. The deal is subject to regulatory review in the European Union and the United States, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.eetimes+1