According to a Bloomberg report released today, NVIDIA is conducting in‑depth negotiations to acquire artificial‑intelligence startup Hugging Face in a transaction valued at nearly USD 14 billion.
Sources familiar with the matter disclosed that NVIDIA could reach an agreement as soon as this week to buy the company for USD 12.9 billion, alongside a USD 1‑billion retention‑incentive package for Hugging Face employees.
No definitive agreement has been signed so far, and the timing and specific terms of the transaction remain subject to change. Representatives from both NVIDIA and Hugging Face have declined to comment.
If completed, this will mark the largest‑ever move made by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to expand the adoption of AI applications and broaden the company’s customer base. Upon closing of the acquisition, NVIDIA will gain control of a pivotal platform where developers worldwide can showcase and share a wide range of AI models.
Public records show that Hugging Face, founded in 2016, is widely known as “the GitHub of AI”. The platform currently hosts more than 3 million public models and over 1 million datasets.
The firm secured its latest financing round in 2023, raising USD 235 million led by Salesforce Ventures at a post‑money valuation of USD 4.5 billion.
Notably, NVIDIA is already an existing investor in Hugging Face. Other backers include Google (a subsidiary of Alphabet), Amazon, Intel and Salesforce.
With a closing valuation of USD 12.9 billion, Hugging Face’s value would have nearly tripled within three years from its USD 4.5‑billion valuation set during its 2023 funding round.
Over the past 12 months, NVIDIA has sealed multiple major deals. These include the acquisition of the core team of chip startup Groq for approximately USD 20 billion in December 2025, and a USD 6‑billion licensing agreement with startup Poolside in August 2026. Last week, NVIDIA unveiled its revenue forecast for fiscal 2028, projecting around 70‑percent year‑over‑year revenue growth.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）