Hugging Face · 2026-08-26 · rumor
NVIDIA nears a Hugging Face deal — The Information reports $12.9B agreed
NVIDIA was the buyer in the Hugging Face sale talks. The Information reported on August 26 that NVIDIA agreed to pay $12.9 billion. NVIDIA confirmed the deal on September 3, 2026 at $12.93 billion.
NVIDIA was named as the buyer and The Information reported the $12.9 billion price a week before NVIDIA confirmed the deal on September 3.
Key specs
| Reported price | $13B or more |
|---|---|
| 2023 valuation | $4.5B |
What is it?
The Hugging Face sale started as an unnamed-buyer story from Business Insider on August 23, which put the price at $13 billion or more. NVIDIA was then named as the buyer, and on August 26 The Information reported the two sides agreed on $12.9 billion. CNBC and Fortune carried that report on August 27. Hugging Face last raised in 2023 at a $4.5 billion valuation.
How does it work?
At the time of this report every story rested on unnamed sources, with no on-record statement from either company. Business Insider had the original sourcing on the sale process and The Information had the agreed price. The confirmation the story was waiting on arrived on September 3, 2026, when NVIDIA announced the acquisition on its own newsroom at $12.93 billion, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.
Why does it matter?
Ownership of Hugging Face touches almost every machine-learning workflow, because the platform is where more than 2 million models, 1 million applications and 500,000 datasets are published and downloaded. Whoever controls that hub sets the hosting terms, the default licences, and which formats stay free to publish. Teams that treat the Hub as permanent free infrastructure now have a reason to check whether their weights and datasets are mirrored somewhere else.
Who is it for?
ML engineers and open-model publishers