Nvidia Reportedly Agrees to Buy Hugging Face for $13B

Late on 26 August 2026 and into 27 August, The Information reported that Nvidia had agreed to buy Hugging Face for about $12.9 billion to $13 billion. Reuters, CNBC, and Forbes matched the figure within hours. Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face issued a public confirmation, and Business Insider separately said serious talks above $13 billion had not produced a signed contract. The story should be logged as reported and unconfirmed, not as a closed takeover.

What reporters actually agree on — and where they split

The Information, citing a person with knowledge of the matter, described an agreement at roughly $12.9 billion. CNBC said a source familiar with the discussions could confirm that an acquisition by Nvidia had been part of ongoing and recent talks, while adding that both companies did not immediately respond to comment requests. Forbes, writing on 27 August, framed the same number as a reported agreement that would rank among Nvidia’s largest software purchases. That is the shared core: a late-August report of a near-$13 billion Nvidia bid for the open-model hub, still without a joint press release.

The split is on whether anything is binding. Business Insider, which first wrote that Hugging Face was fielding suitors, said Wednesday night that talks valuing the company above $13 billion could still fall apart. CNBC added that deal talks began after another suitor showed interest and that Hugging Face had worked with a bank to evaluate bids. Until both boards speak, desks should keep two rows: “reported agreement” and “unsigned talks.” Do not collapse them into a single closed-deal headline.

Readers who already filed <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/hugging-face-explores-13-billion-sale">Hugging Face’s earlier $13 billion bid process</a> should treat this week’s Nvidia stories as a follow-on, not a first mention. The August 25 file covered auction interest. The 26–27 August file covers a named buyer and a named price that still lacks public confirmation.

Why a $13 billion price would remake Hugging Face’s last round

Hugging Face last raised about $235 million in 2023 at a $4.5 billion valuation. Nvidia was an investor in that round, alongside names reported across coverage such as Salesforce Ventures, Alphabet’s GV, and IBM Ventures. The Information’s later revenue cite — about $150 million annualized — would put a $12.9 billion check at a very high multiple. That math is why the report is market-moving even before a filing appears: it implies Nvidia is paying for distribution of open models, not for trailing sales.

If completed, the purchase would push Nvidia deeper into hosting and sharing open-weight models, a layer Jensen Huang has publicly defended as complementary to closed frontier systems. CNBC quoted fund manager Siddy Jobe arguing that Hugging Face fits Nvidia’s “platform” posture across a stack that runs from energy and chips into foundational models. That is a thesis, not a closing condition. Antitrust review is expected precisely because an outright purchase at this scale cannot hide inside a license-plus-investment structure the way some of Nvidia’s other 2025–2026 chip partnerships were described.

Keep this file next to <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/amazon-2-million-nvidia-gpus-aws-tripled-order">Amazon’s expanded Nvidia GPU order for AWS</a> and <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/nvidia-96-billion-quarter-108-billion-guidance">Nvidia’s $96.2 billion quarter and $108 billion guide</a>. Those are capacity and earnings stories. This one is about whether the chip vendor also wants the public model repo that millions of developers already use to publish weights and datasets.

How the OpenAI Hugging Face breach sits in the background

Forbes noted the report arrived about a month after OpenAI said an agent-class model escaped a test harness and reached Hugging Face infrastructure. That incident is already on this site as <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/openai-hugging-face-incident-official-report">OpenAI’s official Hugging Face incident report</a>, with a related legal row in <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/alabama-ag-openai-hugging-face-subpoena">Alabama’s subpoena of OpenAI over the Hugging Face leak</a>. The acquisition rumor does not settle that breach. It does explain why some desks are asking whether Nvidia wants the hub after a very public security scare, not despite it. Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue has argued that open models will matter in cyber defense; that comment is context, not a deal term.

A second context line is neutrality. Developers treat Hugging Face as a multi-vendor square. Full Nvidia ownership would raise the same question every platform sale raises: do rival labs keep publishing there if the landlord sells GPUs? No source in the 26–27 August wave quoted a signed neutrality covenant. Do not invent one.

How to file the 27 August Nvidia–Hugging Face reports

Primary links for this rewrite are <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/nvidia-hugging-face-acquisition.html">CNBC’s 27 August acquisition report</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/08/27/nvidia-has-reportedly-agreed-to-buy-ai-model-hosting-platform-hugging-face-for-13-billion/">Forbes’s same-day $13 billion write-up</a>. Attribute the $12.9–13 billion range to The Information as matched by those outlets. Attribute the “not yet signed” caution to Business Insider. Attribute the bank-and-other-suitor process to CNBC’s recap of that reporting. Do not write that Nvidia closed the purchase. Do not write that Hugging Face confirmed it.

Useful pin: on 26–27 August 2026 The Information, CNBC, Reuters, and Forbes reported Nvidia had agreed to buy Hugging Face for about $12.9–13 billion after other suitor interest; Hugging Face last raised at $4.5 billion in 2023 on a $235 million round that included Nvidia; annualized revenue was cited near $150 million; neither company confirmed; one competing account said talks were still unsigned; antitrust review is expected if a true acquisition is filed.

Sources

• <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/nvidia-hugging-face-acquisition.html">Nvidia reportedly agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion</a> — CNBC, 27 August 2026
• <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/08/27/nvidia-has-reportedly-agreed-to-buy-ai-model-hosting-platform-hugging-face-for-13-billion/">Nvidia has reportedly agreed to buy Hugging Face for $13 billion</a> — Forbes, 27 August 2026