Nvidia Buys Hugging Face for Over 11 Billion Euros

09.09.2026

4 min read

Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for around 11.1 billion euros; the contract was signed on September 2, 2026. Roughly 10.2 billion euros go to shareholders, up to 860 million euros to employees joining Nvidia. Huang says the Hub will remain open but gave no date for life after the closing. The deal is slated to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.

Key Takeaways

The contract has been in place since September 2, 2026. Nvidia and Hugging Face have signed the acquisition agreement. It has not yet closed.
Huang cites the equivalent of around 11.1 billion euros. Of that, roughly 10.2 billion euros will go to shareholders, and up to around 860 million euros to employees joining Nvidia.
Nvidia says the Hub will stay open; no date has been given for the period after the closing. Developers will remain free to choose their models, frameworks, clouds, and hardware. Nvidia hardware, according to Huang, will not be mandatory.
The closing is expected in the first half of 2027. Until then, the platform’s current rules apply. The regulators will decide whether the deal goes through.

What is Hugging Face? The Hub where developers store and run open models, datasets, and applications.

Clément Delangue, Chief Executive Officer of Hugging Face, went to see Jensen Huang this summer. Open models, he argued, need more resources, more visibility, and more infrastructure to keep pace with closed systems. He told Huang that no one was better positioned to deliver that. So reports TechCrunch. On September 2, 2026, both sides signed a definitive agreement. One day later, Huang made the acquisition public.

Huang promises openness, with closing targeted for 2027

Huang puts the acquisition at over 11 billion euros, equivalent to roughly 11.1 billion. Of that, around 10.2 billion euros go to the shareholders of Hugging Face, subject to adjustments.

Up to roughly 860 million euros are earmarked for an equity-based retention program. It applies to employees who move to Nvidia. Combined, the two amounts make up the purchase price.

According to Nvidia, more than 18 million developers, researchers, and authors use the Hub. It hosts more than three million models.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2027. That holds only if the usual closing conditions are met or waived, including the required approvals from regulatory authorities.

Item	Detail	As of
Contract	definitive agreement	September 2, 2026
Huang blog	around 11.1 billion euros	September 3, 2026
Shareholders	around 10.2 billion euros	Form 8-K
Employee retention	up to around 860 million euros	Form 8-K
Closing	first half of 2027, regulatory approval required	Form 8-K
Users on the Hub	more than 18 million	Nvidia blog
Models / datasets / apps	more than 3 million / 500,000 / 1 million	Nvidia blog
Companies on the Hub	more than 200,000	Nvidia blog

Sources: Nvidia, SEC filing Form 8-K dated September 2, 2026; Jensen Huang, Nvidia blog dated September 3, 2026. Euro figures rounded at the ECB reference rate of September 9, 2026.

Nvidia Buys the Platform at the Start of Model Discovery

Many teams start their search for an open model on Hugging Face. Models with high visibility there are frequently tested; without a listing, many teams never see them. With this acquisition, Nvidia now owns the platform at the very start of model discovery.

Nvidia itself already publishes models there. By its own count, the company has released more than 500 models and more than 250 open datasets on Hugging Face. Huang argues that Nvidia builds its own models, libraries, and tools in the open so developers can use them, modify them, and build on top of them.

Hugging Face was founded in 2016. Nvidia was joined in the 2023 funding round of roughly 200 million euros by AMD, Intel, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Qualcomm, and IBM. How these competitors will be allowed to use the Hub after the acquisition remains unknown.

Huang Offers No Timeline After Closing

Huang writes that Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem. Developers choose the models, the frameworks, the clouds, the inference providers, and the compute they want. Nvidia hardware is not required to build on Hugging Face or to run anything through it.

Nvidia has committed to keeping the platform open, in line with Hugging Face’s existing practices. Under this pledge, model builders, developers, and users may upload and download the models and datasets of their choice. The platform will continue to support other chip vendors.

The commitment stands, but the deal has not yet closed. Months can pass between signing and closing while regulators review the case. How long the Hub’s current rules are meant to remain in place after closing is not known.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Hugging Face acquisition complete?

No. Nvidia and Hugging Face signed a definitive agreement on 2 September 2026. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2027, once the usual conditions are met and regulators give their approval.

How is Nvidia breaking down the sum?

Around €10.2 billion of the total €11.1 billion (converted) goes to the shareholders. On top of that, up to €860 million is earmarked for a stock program for employees moving to Nvidia. Nvidia quotes the figures in US currency; the euro values follow the ECB reference rate.

Will Hugging Face remain open to other chip vendors?

Huang writes that Nvidia hardware is not required to build on Hugging Face or run workloads through it. Nvidia has committed to keeping the platform open and continuing to support other chip vendors. How long this commitment is meant to hold remains unknown.

Why did Clément Delangue approach Jensen Huang?

According to TechCrunch, Delangue justified the move by pointing out that open models need compute power and visibility on a scale that only Nvidia can provide.

What changes until closing?

The acquisition is signed but not yet closed. Huang and the stock exchange filing describe the platform’s current rules as remaining in effect. Whether the same rules will apply after closing is an open question and depends on completion and the commitments in force at that time.