Hugging Face built a $4.5 billion empire on free AI models. Now Nvidia is buying it for $12.9 billion

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August 29, 2026, 6:58 PM

• •The article says Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, citing The Information.
• •Thomas Wolf says Hugging Face is launching the Reachy Mini robot kit and unveiled Microduck, a small open-source biped priced at $399.
• •Hugging Face has expanded into enterprise storage, with Wolf saying the company is selling its blob storage system to customers storing large datasets.
• •The company also offers managed AI compute products including Inference Endpoints, Spaces, Inference Providers, and a training cluster service run with Nvidia.
• •The article states Hugging Face had roughly $150 million in annualized revenue this summer and employs about 250 people.
• •The reported acquisition remains subject to regulatory approval and had not closed as of August 29, 2026.

Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, according to The Information, in a deal that would give the chipmaker control of a major open-source AI platform. In an interview, co-founder Thomas Wolf said Hugging Face has expanded beyond model hosting into affordable robotics, enterprise storage, and managed AI compute services. The article argues Nvidia is buying not just revenue but a developer distribution layer and cloud channel tied to open-source AI workloads. The deal has not closed and remains subject to regulatory approval.

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