# Nvidia acquires Hugging Face $13 billion _Nvidia keeps Hugging Face as an open, compute-agnostic hub in a $13B deal with $1B in retention and founders staying six years._ **Published:** 2026-09-04 **Source:** https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/public-companies/2026/nvidia-acquires-hugging-face-13-billion --- Nvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $13 billion, confirming earlier reports from the [Bloomberg Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygKkR2nnCi4). The AI model hub will remain independent under Nvidia ownership. Nvidia acquires Hugging FaceCore AI chip giant buys leading model hub for thirteen billion dollars total valuationFrom the article 5 mentionsNvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $13 billion, confirming earlier reports from the Bloomberg Podcast.Compute-agnostic platformContextNo mandatory Nvidia hardware required for inference, cloud, or community model hostingFrom the article 2 mentionsWolf said the plan is to keep an open, independent and compute-agnostic platform and infrastructure.Deal valued at $13BCoreBloomberg confirms thirteen billion dollar price tag with one billion in retention stockAll three founders stay six yearsCoreThomas Wolf and cofounders commit to multi-year retention following acquisition announcementFrom the articleCo-founder Thomas Wolf said all three founders plan to stay on, along with the full team.Nvidia acquires Hugging FaceCoreAI chip giant buys leading model hub for thirteen billion dollars total valuationFrom the article 5 mentionsNvidia is acquiring Hugging Face for $13 billion, confirming earlier reports from the Bloomberg Podcast.Deal valued at $13BCoreBloomberg confirms thirteen billion dollar price tag with one billion in retention stockHugging Face stays independentDriverOpen community platform keeps separate operations under Nvidia ownership after closeFrom the article 5 mentionsThe deal puts Hugging Face's valuation at around $13 billion, with $1 billion in retention stock, according to comments on Bloomberg Tech.All three founders stay six yearsCoreThomas Wolf and cofounders commit to multi-year retention following acquisition announcementFrom the articleCo-founder Thomas Wolf said all three founders plan to stay on, along with the full team.Jensen Huang backs opennessDriverNvidia CEO publicly supports open model hub, though platform specifics remain undefinedFrom the articleJensen Huang made the same point in a post and interview cited on the show, but Wolf said specifics are still being defined.Nvidia expands AI stackEffectTech giant extends spend beyond chips into model distribution and developer toolingsame goalCompute-agnostic platformContextNo mandatory Nvidia hardware required for inference, cloud, or community model hostingFrom the article 2 mentionsWolf said the plan is to keep an open, independent and compute-agnostic platform and infrastructure.Retention stock for teamOutcomeOne billion dollar stock package aims to keep full engineering team onboardFrom the articleThe deal puts Hugging Face's valuation at around $13 billion, with $1 billion in retention stock, according to comments on Bloomberg Tech. The deal puts Hugging Face's valuation at around $13 billion, with $1 billion in retention stock, according to comments on [Bloomberg Tech](https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/technology/2026/anthropic-warning-spacex-shares-fall). Co-founder Thomas Wolf said all three founders plan to stay on, along with the full team. The full discussion can be found on **Bloomberg Podcast**'s YouTube channel. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ygKkR2nnCi4/maxresdefault.jpg) AI Spending Ripples Across Tech Stack; Nvidia Acquires Hugging Face | Bloomberg Tech, from Bloomberg Podcast ## How Hugging Face stays independent after the deal Wolf said the plan is to keep an open, independent and compute-agnostic platform and infrastructure. That means no mandatory [Nvidia](https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/public-companies/2026/spacex-openai-ipos-nvidia-earnings-fed-rate-hikes) compute for the community, including for the inference platform and cloud choices. Jensen Huang made the same point in a post and interview cited on the show, but Wolf said specifics are still being defined. Hugging Face has raised less than half a billion dollars to date and scaled to 3 million models, 18 million users and 200,000 companies. Wolf framed that growth as the efficiency case for taking Nvidia backing now. ## Why Nvidia is paying now Wolf said Hugging Face considered raising more versus partnering with someone aligned on open source, then approached Nvidia directly. Open source is having a major moment, he said, and became critical for safety and enterprise control after attacks earlier this summer. This is not [spacex ipo](https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/ipo-watch/2026/spcx-stock-first-pullback-2026-06-17)-style financial engineering. Wolf contrasted it with a straight investment and pointed to Nvidia scale for robotics too, noting the recent Reachy micro-duck demand as a preview of hardware leverage. Regulatory clearance is the overhang. Wolf called it early to assess antitrust, said Hugging Face is confident in an independent-platform path, and declined to detail how rivals using Nvidia competitors will view the deal. The broader AI stack backdrop is tight supply, with [Broadcom](https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/public-companies/2026/broadcom-s-ai-outlook-miss-hits-stock) guiding to doubling AI chip sales while demand still outstrips supply across chips, servers and software. --- Original analysis from [startuphub.ai](https://www.startuphub.ai), the #1 AI startup directory.