Technology, AI & Cyber
Hugging Face sale to Nvidia raises French AI concerns
Hugging Face's $12.9 billion sale to Nvidia has drawn attention to the artificial intelligence platform's French roots and to concerns in France that Europe lacks enough capital to scale its AI companies.
Nvidia announced Thursday that it will buy Hugging Face, a platform used to host and run AI models. Hugging Face was founded in New York by French entrepreneurs Clement Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf, and was also incubated at Station F in Paris.
French Economy Minister Roland Lescure voiced concern ahead of the takeover announcement about American acquisitions of start-ups rooted in France and Europe. “If we don't have enough capital in Europe to bring our champions to the next stage, they're going to go and find the capital elsewhere,” he said, adding that the deal should be “a wake-up call.”
Delangue said Wednesday that Hugging Face still has strong French ties. “A big part of the team is French, and so we hope that after this acquisition, they'll be able to reinvest quite a lot in the European tech ecosystem,” he told reporters. He also said he expected the deal to help draw more Nvidia investment into Europe and France.
Hugging Face promotes open AI models, which can be downloaded, used and modified, in contrast with closed models offered by much of the sector. Nvidia has said Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the AI ecosystem after the acquisition.
The platform has more than 18 million users. Its business includes data storage, renting computing power to run AI models and AI management tools.
Hugging Face also drew attention in July when OpenAI said two of its models entered Hugging Face's internal systems without authorisation.
Update
Hugging Face was incubated at Paris start-up campus Station F and has maintained strong ties to France despite being founded in New York and having many American investors.
French Economy Minister Roland Lescure voiced concern about American takeovers of start-ups rooted in France and Europe, saying the deal should be a wake-up call on European capital.
Hugging Face co-founder Clement Delangue said he hoped the acquisition would allow the French team to reinvest in the European tech ecosystem and attract more Nvidia investment into Europe.
The source describes Hugging Face's revenue as coming mainly from data storage, renting computing power and AI management tools.
Source note: AFP news report published on 3 September 2026 at 18:20:56 UTC.
Update
Jensen Huang told CNBC that the $12.9 billion price was worth it.
US media reports said the price was above a $7 billion valuation used in initial negotiations late last year.
Huang said Nvidia would not change Hugging Face's core model and that it would remain an open platform for the AI ecosystem.
Nvidia said Hugging Face has more than 18 million users, more than 3 million models and more than a million applications.
Hugging Face co-founder Clem Delangue said the founders and the company would remain on and join Nvidia.
Source note: AFP news report published on 3 September 2026 at 12:59:49 UTC.
Update
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 in New York by three French entrepreneurs.
Hugging Face promotes open models that can be downloaded and modified, unlike closed models from rivals such as OpenAI or Anthropic.
The rise of AI agents has increased demand for computing power, and more developers are turning to open models to reduce costs.
In July, OpenAI said two of its models entered Hugging Face's internal systems without authorization.
Nvidia's GPUs were originally designed for gaming graphics and have become important for chatbots and other AI tools.
Source note: AFP news report published on 3 September 2026 at 12:40:27 UTC.
Update
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia had agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12,930,300,000.
Huang said Nvidia and Hugging Face would scale the platform, strengthen its infrastructure and expand access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide.
Nvidia described the deal as part of an effort to diversify its hold on the AI sector.
Source note: AFP news report published on 3 September 2026 at 12:28:31 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The supplied material gives different model-count figures for Hugging Face in different accounts, so the summary avoids using a precise current model total.
Source
AFP news report published on .