· Updated · Venture Capital Tracker · investment-strategies · 4 min read
September 2026 VC News: Nvidia–Hugging Face $12.93B Agreed, Nscale $3.5B Ask
Through September 7: Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion (not closed; H1 2027). Nscale is in talks for about $3.5 billion of pre-IPO paper. XDOF is in Series B talks at about $1.2 billion. Swish closed a $250 million Fund III ($800 million is AUM). ServiceNow confirmed it acquired Sweep; about $400 million is Geektime. Nua closed a $50 million Series C that mixes primary and secondary. Wonderful’s $550 million Series C at a $5 billion press mark. YC Summer Demo Day is September 10.
September 7 adds an India consumer Series C on top of the Hugging Face agreement. Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion (not closed; H1 2027). Nscale is shopping about $3.5 billion of pre-IPO paper. XDOF is in Series B talks at about $1.2 billion. Swish closed Fund III at $250 million (~$800 million is AUM). ServiceNow confirmed it acquired Sweep; about $400 million is Geektime. Nua closed $50 million Series C that mixes primary and secondary (no split, no valuation). Wonderful remains the largest company-confirmed equity raise this month ($550 million; $5 billion is TC/WSJ; no ARR). AfterQuery is still reported at $3.2 billion. Dated snapshot through September 7; not a live deal feed.
What printed through September 7
| Date | Entity | Amount | Type | What is actually known | Follow-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 7 | Nua | $50M | Series C | Peak XV + Filter. Mixed primary/secondary. No valuation. | Nua memo |
| Sep 3 | Swish Ventures | $250M | Fund III close | $800M is AUM. Named overlap: Cognition, Wonderful, Upwind. No /fund/ page. | Swish memo |
| Sep 3 | Sweep | $400M reported | Acquisition | Spokesperson to CTech / Geektime. No release. Insight / Bessemer historical. | Sweep memo |
| Sep 4 | Nscale | $3.5B ask | Pre-IPO talks | $1.5B converts + $2B Nvidia (Bloomberg via TC). Not a close. $103B is projected leases. | Nscale memo |
| Sep 4 | XDOF | $1.2B mark | Series B talks | 8VC described as lead. Amount unknown. Company silent. Last print $70M (June). | XDOF memo |
| Sep 2 | Hugging Face | $12.93B | Acquisition (agreed) | Huang price. 8-K: ~$11.9B + up to $1B retention. Not closed. H1 2027. | Hugging Face memo |
| Sep 2 | Wonderful | $550M at $5B | Series C | Company $550M. $5B is TC/WSJ. No ARR. Insight led. | Wonderful memo |
| Sep 1 | Console | $500M reported | Acquisition | PANW: acquired. Price is TC, two people. Thrive/DST historical. | Console memo |
| Sep 2 | iPronics | $125M | Series B | Maverick Silicon + Light Street co-led. Nvidia joined. No valuation. | iPronics memo |
| Sep 1 | AfterQuery | $3.2B | Reported valuation | Amount/lead/close unknown. Company silent. | AfterQuery memo |
| Aug 31 | a16z | $8.5B total | Growth fund top-up | +$1.75B vs January $6.75B. Not Machine Age. | Growth memo |
| Sep 2 | Frontier Computing | $10M | Pre-seed | GC lead. Frogger demo. 500M neurons = plan. | Frontier memo |
| Aug 31 | Clipto | $15M at $250M | Equity (unnamed stage) | Kang: $15M ARR, profitable. HSG ≠ Sequoia. | Clipto memo |
| Sep 1 | Kepler Aerospace | $8M | Seed | First external equity since 2018. Launch target Dec 2027. Not Kepler Communications. | Kepler memo |
| Sep 1 | Cloover | $100M | Facility (debt capacity) | Company: profitable at >$350M run rate. Not new equity. | Cloover memo |
| Sep 1 | Cherubic Ventures | $68.88M | Fund VI close | Firm: six-fund AUM >$500M. No /fund/ page. | Cherubic memo |
| Sep 10 | Y Combinator | n/a | Demo Day (scheduled) | Summer 2026 Demo Day, per YC’s 2026 dates post. | YC guide |
Day indexes: September 1 · September 2 AfterQuery tape · September 2–3 Wonderful/Console/optics · September 3–4 Nvidia/Hugging Face · September 4–5 XDOF/Nscale · September 5–6 Swish/Sweep · September 6–7 Nua.
How to read the $8.5 billion
a16z Growth is scaling capital. Machine Age is hardware capital. Accel’s August $3.5 billion is early-stage capital. Adding those three into a “September dry powder” total mixes jobs.
Directory: Andreessen Horowitz. Accel still has no /fund/ page.
Still rumor, talks, or already covered elsewhere
- AfterQuery $3.2B — Forbes, two people. Not a company close. Amount unknown.
- Console $500M — TechCrunch, two people. PANW announced the buy without terms.
- Wonderful $5B — TC/WSJ on a company $550M raise. No ARR. WSJ $170M secondary: do not add to $550M.
- Cognition ~$47B — Bloomberg sources, Sep 1. Last company print: May $26B. See Cognition memo.
- Moonshot HK IPO / $50B pre-IPO talks — The Information, Sep 2. See Moonshot.
- Nvidia / Hugging Face $12.93B — agreed Sep 2/3. Not closed. Do not add the $11.9B equity line and $1B retention into a $14B headline. See the memo.
- Nscale $3.5B — Bloomberg via TC. Talks. $103B is projected leases. Series B date is Sep 25, 2025 on the company site; TC said March.
- XDOF $1.2B — TC, several people. Talks. Amount unknown. 8VC as lead. Company silent.
- Swish $800M — AUM, not Fund III. Fund III is $250M. $60B portfolio value is a firm claim.
- Sweep $400M — Geektime sources. ServiceNow confirmed the buy, not the price. No release. ≠ climate Sweep.
- Nua $50M — mixed primary/secondary. Split unknown. No valuation. ₹500 Cr run rate is company. ≠ Nua Surgical.
- Crusoe / Gimlet / Upwind / Ultrahuman / Guardio — merged PR #135. Not re-litigated here.
- Atira / Hivebotics standalone / Octave.energy / HiBob / Sirdab standalone — merged PR #136. Not re-litigated here.
- Polymarket ~$1B / $21B — reported / in-progress as of Aug 31. Merged PR #127; this hub does not duplicate it.
- Cursor $60B — still press, not Cursor’s close post.
- OpenRouter $7.5B — NYT via TechCrunch; deal announced, not closed.
- Anthropic IPO ticker — there isn’t one. Confidential draft S-1 (June 1).
- Onos Health $17M — already on main from August.
- Félix / AIR / Light / SciFin / Empirik / Aslan / Tripo — merged PR #131. Not re-litigated here.
- VAST / Wafer / Odyssey / upGrad — merged PR #132.
- Thyme Care / Lyte / HiddenLayer / Conveo / Aitan / HyImpulse / Huskeys — merged PR #134.
- Adaptyv / Clerky / Standard Metrics / Sharpa / Gridsight / Helcim — merged August 31–September 1 coverage.
August comparison: August 2026 VC news. July: July 2026 global VC news.
Method and limits
Amounts are preserved as reported. Fund closes, company equity, reported marks, acquisitions, and debt facilities are not combined. Primary or named press sources should be checked before using these figures in an investment memo. Last verified September 7, 2026.
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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.