Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for about $11.9 billion, adding one of the biggest open-source AI platforms to its expanding AI business.
The deal also includes up to $1 billion in equity-based retention awards for Hugging Face employees who join Nvidia, according to an SEC filing.
Nvidia said the purchase price, which will be paid to Hugging Face stockholders, is subject to certain adjustments. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, assuming it receives the required regulatory approvals.
Hugging Face is best known as a platform where developers and researchers build, share,and deploy AI models. Its community also uses the platform to distribute applications built around those models.
Nvidia said it will provide the platform with additional resources while continuing to support developers working with open models and applications.
The chipmaker has also pledged to keep the platform open. Developers and users will continue to be able to upload and download models and datasets of their choice, while Hugging Face will continue supporting hardware from other chipmakers.
Hugging Face was valued at about $4.5 billion in its August 2023 funding round, which raised $235 million and included Nvidia, Google, Salesforce, AMD, Qualcomm and Amazon.