---
title: "Did Nvidia Buy Hugging Face? Agreed. $12.93B. Not Closed."
description: "Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face. Jensen Huang’s September 3, 2026 post names $12,930,300,000. The 8-K split is about $11.9 billion to stockholders plus up to $1 billion in employee retention. Signed September 2. Expected close: first half of 2027. Not closed."
date: 2026-09-04T00:00:00.000Z
tags: ["2026-vc-news", "mergers-acquisitions", "venture-capital", "artificial-intelligence", "startup-funding"]
source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/2026-nvidia-hugging-face-12-9b-acquisition
---

# Did Nvidia Buy Hugging Face? Agreed. $12.93B. Not Closed.

> Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face. Jensen Huang’s September 3, 2026 post names $12,930,300,000. The 8-K split is about $11.9 billion to stockholders plus up to $1 billion in employee retention. Signed September 2. Expected close: first half of 2027. Not closed.

**Nvidia has agreed to acquire [Hugging Face](/startup/hugging-face).** Jensen Huang [posted the price](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-to-acquire-hugging-face/) on **September 3, 2026**: **$12,930,300,000**. The companies **signed** a definitive agreement on **September 2**. It is **not closed**. Nvidia expects close in the **first half of 2027**, subject to regulatory approvals (8-K via BBC / StockTitan).

The **$12.93 billion** headline is **not** a $14 billion deal. The 8-K split, as [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr4vnr5g1k7o) and the filing summary print it, is about **$11.9 billion** to Hugging Face stockholders plus **up to $1 billion** in equity retention for employees who join Nvidia. Do **not** add those lines together as a second purchase price.

This page is for people who need **agreed vs closed vs $11.9B vs $12.93B**. Last verified **September 4, 2026**.

## Five-minute decision

| If you need… | Verdict |
| --- | --- |
| Did the deal happen? | **Agreed.** Huang blog, Sep 3. Signed Sep 2. |
| Is it closed? | **No.** Expected H1 2027. |
| Headline price | **$12,930,300,000** (Huang). |
| 8-K split | **~$11.9B** to stockholders + **up to $1B** retention. |
| vs [OpenRouter → Stripe](/2026-stripe-openrouter-7b-reported) | OpenRouter: announced, **$7.5B is NYT**, not closed. Hugging Face: announced, **price is company + 8-K**, not closed. |
| vs [Groq](/startup/groq) | Groq was **~$20B** licensing/talent (Dec 2025). **Larger.** Different structure. |

**Investigate further when:** you underwrite whether an open-model hub can stay multi-accelerator after the GPU vendor owns it.

**Wait or pass when:** you need a close certificate, Hart-Scott-Rodino / EU merger clearance, or a contractual “open” covenant beyond the blog post.

## What happened

| Field | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Target | Hugging Face (NYC / Paris origins; French founders Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf) |
| Buyer | Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). **No** `/startup/` page here. |
| Status | **Agreed to acquire.** Not “has acquired.” |
| Signed | **September 2, 2026** (8-K). |
| Announced | **September 3, 2026** (Huang blog; CNBC). |
| Who approached | Delangue [told CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/nvidia-agrees-to-buy-hugging-face-for-almost-13-billion-ai-expansion.html) he went to Huang over the summer. |
| Platform claims (Huang) | **18 million** developers/researchers/creators; **3 million** models; **500,000** datasets; **1 million** apps; **200,000** companies. |
| Open promise (Huang) | “Nvidia compute will **not** be required.” Multi-cloud, multi-accelerator, all model builders. |

CNBC also notes a recent **Hugging Face breach**. Delangue blamed **engineering mistakes** and said the company used an Nvidia version of a Chinese open model to resolve it. Treat that as **context for the “turning point” quote**, not as a priced term.

## Nvidia–Hugging Face vs Stripe–OpenRouter vs Groq

| | Hugging Face → Nvidia | [OpenRouter → Stripe](/2026-stripe-openrouter-7b-reported) | [Groq](/2026-groq-350m-series-a-inference-cloud) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Job | Open-model hub / Hub | Inference routing marketplace | Post-deal inference neocloud |
| Status | **Agreed.** Not closed. | **Announced.** Not closed. | Talent/IP deal **already** happened (Dec 2025) |
| Price quality | Huang **$12.93B** + 8-K split | **$7.5B is NYT** via TechCrunch | **~$20B** (CNBC; larger) |
| What you can cite | Buyer blog + 8-K | Company blogs; price is press | Company Series A + TC |

Same week Nvidia **joined** — did **not** lead — [iPronics’ $125 million Series B](/2026-ipronics-125m-series-b-nvidia-optics). That is a **photonics check**, not this acquisition.

NYC cluster page still owns the **city** job: [Hugging Face, Runway, ElevenLabs](/nyc-hugging-face-runway-elevenlabs-ai-native-companies). This URL owns the **September 2026 transaction**.

## What remains undisclosed

**Revenue / ARR** is not in Huang’s post or the CNBC write-up we used. **Last 2023 priced round** ($4.5B / Salesforce Ventures $235M) is a **recap** in later secondary stories, not a 2026 company reprint here. **Cash vs stock mix** on the $11.9B, **earnout**, and the **legal text** of the “remain open” promise are not in the blog. Related: [Hugging Face](/startup/hugging-face) · [Groq](/startup/groq) · [OpenRouter](/startup/openrouter) · [September 3–4 tape](/2026-september-3-4-investment-news-nvidia-hugging-face).

**By:** [Venture Capital Tracker](https://venturecapitaltracker.com/editorial-policy)
**Last updated:** September 4, 2026

**Editorial note:** AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.