Nvidia to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9bn

3rd Sep 2026 14:18

(Sharecast News) - Nvidia said on Thursday that it has agreed to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9bn, following weeks of speculation.

Chief executive Jensen Huang said in a blog post that Hugging Face "will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem".

"Developers will choose the models they want, the frameworks they want, the clouds and inference service providers they want and the computing platforms they want. Nvidia compute will not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face," he said.

More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use Hugging Face to share more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications. More than 200,000 companies use the platform to "discover, evaluate, customise and deploy AI," Huang said.

Nvidia noted that it's the largest contributor of open models and data to Hugging Face. It has released more than 500 models on Hugging Face and more than 250 open datasets.

At 1730 BST, Nvidia shares were up 1.3% at $227.26.

Axel Rudolph, chief technical analyst at IG, said: "Nvidia's acquisition of Hugging Face is another sign that the company's ambitions extend far beyond selling chips. By bringing one of the key platforms for open-source and open-weight AI models into its ecosystem, Nvidia gains a much deeper relationship with developers and a new route into the software and deployment layers of AI.

"The deal could help sustain demand for Nvidia hardware while reducing its reliance on a handful of hyperscalers, but there is a clear risk that Hugging Face's appeal as a neutral platform could be weakened if developers fear Nvidia is taking too much control.

"The price tag looks hefty on conventional measures, but Nvidia is clearly buying strategic influence as much as current earnings. And despite the scale of the deal, there still looks to be plenty of mileage left in the Nvidia share price: the company is expanding into more parts of the AI ecosystem, while its valuation does not look excessive when viewed against its longer-term growth prospects."

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: "Investors haven't exactly been thrilled by the huge amounts of cash being spent by AI hyperscalers, but news of Nvidia's near $13 billion deal to acquire Hugging Face resulted in its shares rising.

"The chipmaker needed to insulate itself from a potential sales slowdown, as some of its biggest customers are developing their own semiconductors. CEO Jensen Huang has made no secret of the fact he doesn't want the company to be limited to only a few parts of the AI equation.

"Hugging Face gives Nvidia access to a platform where AI developers are building out and using their own models. This presents an opportunity for companies and countries to have greater sovereignty, away from closed systems operated by a handful of US or Chinese players.

"Each developer is also a potential client for Nvidia and being able to foster deeper relationships within this open-source AI hub is likely to be seen as a way to future-proof the business. Nvidia has enjoyed stellar growth but has also faced increasing scrutiny about its forward trajectory."