# Nvidia's Dealmaking: From Mellanox and the Failed Arm Bid to Groq and Hugging Face

- URL: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions
- Topic: Tech industry · Tags: Tech industry, Mergers and acquisitions, Nvidia
- Updated: Sep 9, 2026 · 41 dated entries

## Summary

Nvidia began this period with its $6.9 billion agreement to acquire Mellanox in 2019, which closed in 2020 after China imposed six years of conduct conditions and established networking as a major part of Nvidia’s data-center business. Its proposed $40 billion purchase of Arm then failed in 2022 after challenges from the FTC and UK competition authorities and a European Commission Phase 2 review. Since 2024, Nvidia has resumed buying AI-infrastructure software and startups, while also using investments and licence-plus-hire arrangements such as Enfabrica and Groq alongside conventional acquisitions. As of September 9, 2026, Nvidia’s proposed $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face awaits US and EU approval, with regulators and users likely to examine whether Nvidia can preserve the platform’s stated hardware neutrality and openness.

## Key moments

- Mar 11, 2019: Nvidia agrees to buy Mellanox for $6.9 billion, outbidding Intel for the InfiniBand maker
- Apr 16, 2020: China's SAMR clears Mellanox with conditions after a year-long review
- Apr 27, 2020: Mellanox deal closes at $7 billion, the start of Nvidia's networking business
- Sep 13, 2020: Nvidia agrees to buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion in shares and cash
- Dec 2, 2021: FTC sues to block the Arm acquisition as a vertical threat to chip competition
- Feb 7, 2022: Nvidia and SoftBank abandon the Arm deal; SoftBank keeps the $1.25 billion prepayment and plans an IPO
- Apr 24, 2024: Run:ai, a GPU orchestration startup, for a reported $700 million starts the 2024 software buying spree
- Dec 20, 2024: European Commission clears Run:ai unconditionally in its first post-Illumina Article 22 case
- Dec 30, 2024: Run:ai closes; Nvidia says it will open-source the software
- Sep 22, 2025: Letter of intent to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as it deploys 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems
- Dec 24, 2025: Groq: about $20 billion for a non-exclusive licence and the founding team, Nvidia's biggest deal by far
- Sep 3, 2026: Nvidia confirms the $12.93 billion Hugging Face deal, with a pledge to keep the platform open and hardware-neutral

## Timeline (newest first)

### Sep 3, 2026 — Nvidia confirms the $12.93 billion Hugging Face deal, with a pledge to keep the platform open and hardware-neutral

Nvidia signed the definitive agreement on September 2 and announced it the next morning: about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face stockholders plus up to $1 billion in retention equity, closing expected in the first half of 2027 subject to US and EU regulatory approvals. Huang committed that Nvidia compute would not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face and that it would keep supporting other silicon vendors, the openness question regulators are expected to focus on. CEO Clément Delangue said he had approached Huang weeks earlier, after Hugging Face was hacked.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n697 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Sep 3, 2026 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-to-acquire-hugging-face/ — "I’m excited to announce that NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12,930,300,000."
- Source: NVIDIA Form 8-K (SEC) · Sep 2, 2026 · https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001045810/000104581026000078/nvda-20260902.htm — "On September 2, 2026, NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hugging Face, Inc. (“Hugging Face”). Hugging Face operates a platform and community for developing, sharing and deploying open-source models, datasets and applications. The transaction includes an approximately $11.9 billion purchase price payable to Hugging Face stockholders, subject to certain adjustments, and an equity-based retention program of up to approximately $1.0 billion for Hugging Face employees joining NVIDIA."
- Source: TechCrunch · Sep 3, 2026 · https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/nvidia-confirms-it-will-buy-hugging-face-for-12-9-billion/ — "After weeks of swirling rumors, Nvidia confirmed today that it has acquired Hugging Face for $12.93 billion."

### Aug 26, 2026 — The Information: Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion

Days after Business Insider reported that Hugging Face was fielding takeover interest, The Information said Nvidia had agreed to pay $12.9 billion for the open-model platform, though talks had not produced a signed agreement. Unlike the Groq licence, an outright purchase would require a Hart-Scott-Rodino filing and likely an EU merger review.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n696 (Report)
- Source: TechCrunch · Aug 26, 2026 · https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/nvidia-closes-in-on-hugging-face-acquisition/ — "Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, The Information reported Wednesday night, citing a source familiar with the matter."

### Jul 27, 2026 — Nvidia invests in Safe Superintelligence Inc.

Nvidia and Safe Superintelligence Inc. announced a long-term partnership. Nvidia also made an investment in Safe Superintelligence Inc.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n721 (Financial)
- Source: NVIDIA and SSI joint announcement · Jul 27, 2026 · https://investor.nvidia.com/news/press-release-details/2026/Ilya-Sutskevers-Safe-Superintelligence-Inc--and-NVIDIA-Announce-Long-Term-Strategic-Partnership/default.aspx — "Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) and NVIDIA today announced a long-term partnership to rapidly accelerate SSI’s strategic growth. NVIDIA has additionally made an investment in SSI."
- Source: TechCrunch · Jul 27, 2026 · https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/27/ilya-sutskevers-safe-superintelligence-partners-with-nvidia-to-scale-its-ai-research/ — "Bloomberg reported that the deal size was $5 billion."
- Editor's note: The page states that SSI and NVIDIA announced a long-term partnership and that NVIDIA made an investment in SSI. It is dated July 27, 2026.

### Jun 3, 2026 — Kumo AI, a predictive-model startup, for a reported $400 million-plus

Fortune reported that Nvidia had quietly acquired Kumo AI, a four-year-old Sequoia-backed company whose foundation models make business predictions such as churn and credit risk from relational data, with its three co-founders moving to Nvidia in May; the price was later reported above $400 million.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n695 (Report)
- Source: Fortune · Jun 3, 2026 · https://fortune.com/2026/06/03/nvidia-snaps-up-kumo-ai-in-latest-acquisition/ — "Nvidia has acquired Kumo AI, a small, four-year-old startup that develops foundation models designed to make accurate business predictions, according to two sources familiar with the deal."

### Mar 10, 2026 — A 'significant investment' in Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab and a gigawatt of Vera Rubin

Nvidia announced a multiyear partnership with the Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, to deploy at least one gigawatt of Vera Rubin systems from early 2027, alongside an undisclosed equity investment reported at up to $2.5 billion in a round valuing the lab near $40 billion.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n694 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Mar 10, 2026 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-thinking-machines-lab/ — "NVIDIA and Thinking Machines Lab announced today a multiyear strategic partnership to deploy at least one gigawatt of next-generation NVIDIA Vera Rubin systems to support Thinking Machines’ frontier model training and platforms delivering customizable AI at scale."
- Source: CNBC · Mar 10, 2026 · https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/10/nvidia-mira-murati-thinking-machines-lab-ai.html — "Nvidia has made a "significant investment" in Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab, the companies announced."

### Feb 23, 2026 — Illumex, an Israeli semantic-data startup, for about $60 million

Calcalist reported that Nvidia had bought Illumex, whose Generative Semantic Fabric turns enterprise data into ontologies for AI agents, for an estimated $60 million, a small deal aimed at the enterprise agentic-AI stack.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n693 (Announcement)
- Source: Calcalist · Feb 23, 2026 · https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hkrcgl5dbx — "Nvidia has acquired Israeli startup Illumex, Calcalist has learned. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the deal is estimated to be in the region of $60 million."

### Feb 12, 2026 — Anthropic says Series G includes Nvidia investment

Anthropic said its $30 billion Series G round included part of Nvidia's previously announced investment. Anthropic reported a $380 billion post-money valuation for the round.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n720 (Financial)
- Source: Anthropic · Feb 12, 2026 · https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-30-billion-series-g-funding-380-billion-post-money-valuation?pubDate=20250519 — "This round also includes a portion of the previously announced investments from Microsoft and NVIDIA."
- Editor's note: The page states that Anthropic raised $30 billion in Series G funding at a $380 billion post-money valuation. It also says the round included a portion of the previously announced investments from Microsoft and NVIDIA, and is dated Feb 12, 2026.

### Jan 23, 2026 — CoreWeave completes $2 billion share sale to Nvidia

CoreWeave completed the sale of 22,935,780 Class A shares to Nvidia for $2 billion in cash. The purchase price was $87.20 per share.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n719 (Financial)
- Source: CoreWeave Form 8-K · Jan 26, 2026 · https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1769628/000176962826000044/crwv-20260123.htm — "On January 23, 2026, the Company completed the issuance and sale of 22,935,780 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, par value $0.000005 per share, pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, at a price of $87.20 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $2 billion in cash."
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Jan 26, 2026 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-coreweave-strengthen-collaboration-to-accelerate-buildout-of-ai-factories — "In addition, NVIDIA has invested $2 billion in CoreWeave Class A common stock at a purchase price of $87.20 per share."
- Editor's note: The filing states that CoreWeave completed the issuance and sale of 22,935,780 Class A shares to NVIDIA on January 23, 2026, at $87.20 per share for $2 billion in cash. The quoted language appears in the filing, apart from typographic quotation-mark formatting.

### Jan 6, 2026 — Nvidia is strategic investor in xAI's Series E

Nvidia was a strategic investor in xAI's $20 billion Series E financing. xAI did not disclose Nvidia's individual investment amount.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n718 (Financial)
- Source: xAI · Jan 6, 2026 · https://x.ai/news/series-e — "Strategic investors in the round include NVIDIA and Cisco Investments, who continue to support xAI in rapidly scaling our compute infrastructure and buildout of the largest GPU clusters in the world."
- Editor's note: The page states that xAI raised $20 billion in its Series E and identifies NVIDIA as a strategic investor. It does not disclose NVIDIA's individual investment amount, and the page is dated January 6, 2026.

### Dec 24, 2025 — Groq: about $20 billion for a non-exclusive licence and the founding team, Nvidia's biggest deal by far

On Christmas Eve Nvidia agreed to pay roughly $20 billion in cash for a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to Groq's inference-chip patents and software and to hire founder Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra and other staff, while Groq and GroqCloud nominally continued as an independent company. Structured as a licence rather than a merger, the deal avoided a Hart-Scott-Rodino filing; analysts said it kept 'the fiction of competition alive'.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n692 (Announcement)
- Source: CNBC · Dec 24, 2025 · https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html — "Nvidia is making its largest purchase ever, acquiring assets from 9-year-old chip startup Groq for about $20 billion."
- Source: TechCrunch · Dec 24, 2025 · https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-acquires-ai-chip-challenger-groq-for-20b-report-says/ — "Nvidia has struck a non-exclusive licensing agreement with AI chip competitor Groq."

### Dec 15, 2025 — SchedMD, the company behind the Slurm scheduler used across HPC

Nvidia bought SchedMD, developer of the open-source Slurm workload manager that runs most supercomputers and many AI clusters, for an undisclosed sum, promising to keep Slurm open and vendor-neutral. With Run:ai and Slurm it now owned the two dominant schedulers for GPU clusters, drawing questions about neutrality for mixed-vendor sites.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n691 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Dec 15, 2025 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-acquires-schedmd — "NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD — the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI — to help strengthen the open-source software ecosystem and drive AI innovation for researchers, developers and enterprises."

### Nov 18, 2025 — Up to $10 billion into Anthropic alongside Microsoft, at a valuation near $350 billion

Nvidia and Microsoft announced investments of up to $10 billion and $5 billion in Anthropic, with Anthropic committing to buy $30 billion of Azure capacity and up to a gigawatt of Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems, and to optimise Claude for Nvidia hardware. It gave Nvidia equity in both of the leading frontier labs.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n690 (Announcement)
- Source: CNBC · Nov 18, 2025 · https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/anthropic-ai-azure-microsoft-nvidia.html — "Microsoft will invest up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion into the startup, pushing Anthropic's valuation to the range of $350 billion."

### Sep 22, 2025 — Letter of intent to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as it deploys 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems

The largest investment Nvidia had ever proposed: a non-binding agreement to put up to $100 billion into OpenAI progressively as each gigawatt of Nvidia systems is deployed, starting with the first gigawatt on Vera Rubin in the second half of 2026. Critics called it circular financing; the definitive terms were still being negotiated months later.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n689 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Sep 22, 2025 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/openai-and-nvidia-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-10gw-of-nvidia-systems — "OpenAI and NVIDIA today announced a letter of intent for a landmark strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems for OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure to train and run its next generation of models on the path to deploying superintelligence. To support this deployment including data center and power capacity, NVIDIA intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new NVIDIA systems are deployed."

### Sep 18, 2025 — Enfabrica: more than $900 million to hire the CEO and license the chip-networking technology

In a cash-and-stock deal modelled on the acquihires Meta and Google had used, Nvidia paid over $900 million to bring in Enfabrica founder Rochan Sankar and staff and license its technology for connecting tens of thousands of GPUs, without buying the company, which Nvidia had backed in a 2023 funding round.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n688 (Announcement)
- Source: CNBC · Sep 18, 2025 · https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/nvidia-spent-over-900-million-on-enfabrica-ceo-ai-startup-technology.html — "Nvidia spent more than $900 million to hire Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar and other employees at the AI startup and to license the company's technology, CNBC has learned. The cash and stock deal is reminiscent of high-profile acquihires orchestrated by Meta and Google."

### Sep 18, 2025 — $5 billion for a stake in Intel, with joint data center and PC chips

Nvidia agreed to buy $5 billion of Intel common stock at $23.28 a share and to co-develop custom x86 CPUs linked to Nvidia GPUs over NVLink for data centers and PCs, a month after the US government took its own 10 percent stake in Intel. The same day CNBC reported the Enfabrica acquihire.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n687 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Sep 18, 2025 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-intel-to-develop-ai-infrastructure-and-personal-computing-products — "NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) today announced a collaboration to jointly develop multiple generations of custom data center and PC products that accelerate applications and workloads across hyperscale, enterprise and consumer markets."

### Sep 15, 2025 — China says Nvidia violated its antimonopoly law over the Mellanox conditions

Five years after clearing the deal, SAMR announced that a preliminary investigation found Nvidia had breached the anti-monopoly law and the 2020 conditions, and said it would investigate further before deciding penalties. The finding landed during US-China trade talks in Madrid and a week before Beijing told companies to stop buying Nvidia's China chips.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n686 (Legal)
- Source: CNBC · Sep 15, 2025 · https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/15/china-nvidia-violated-anti-monopoly-law-will-continue-investigation.html — "China's market regulator on Monday said that Nvidia violated the country's anti-monopoly law in relation to its aquisition of Mellanox in 2020."

### Apr 9, 2025 — Lepton AI, a GPU cloud marketplace founded by ex-Alibaba researchers, for several hundred million dollars

The Information reported that Nvidia had closed the purchase of Lepton AI, a two-year-old startup led by former Alibaba vice president Yangqing Jia that rented Nvidia GPUs across clouds. Lepton became the basis of DGX Cloud Lepton, Nvidia's compute marketplace launched at Computex in May 2025.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n685 (Report)
- Source: TechNode · Apr 9, 2025 · https://technode.com/2025/04/09/nvidia-acquires-chinese-gpu-cloud-startup-lepton-ai-report/ — "NVIDIA has acquired Chinese startup Lepton AI in a deal valued at several hundred million dollars, according to US tech media outlet The Information."

### Mar 19, 2025 — Gretel, a synthetic-data startup, in a nine-figure deal

Wired reported that Nvidia had bought Gretel, a San Diego company with about 80 employees whose platform generates synthetic training data, for more than its last $320 million valuation, folding it into Nvidia's model-training tools.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n684 (Report)
- Source: TechCrunch · Mar 19, 2025 · https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/nvidia-reportedly-acquires-synthetic-data-startup-gretel/ — "Nvidia has reportedly acquired Gretel, a San Diego-based startup that’s developed a platform to generate synthetic AI training data. Terms of the acquisition are unknown. The price tag was said to be nine figures, exceeding Gretel’s most recent valuation of $320 million, according to Wired."

### Jan 10, 2025 — Nvidia seeks annulment of Run:ai referral decision

Nvidia brought an action seeking annulment of the European Commission's October 31, 2024 decision on Italy's referral request. The action concerned the Run:ai transaction.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n716 (Legal)
- Source: Official Journal of the European Union, Case T-15/25 · Feb 24, 2025 · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ%3AC_202501124 — "The applicant claims that the Court should: — annul Commission’s decision of 31 October 2024, on the request for referral by Italy to the Commission pursuant to Article 22(1) of the EU Merger Regulation."
- Editor's note: The page states that Nvidia brought an action on 10 January 2025 and sought annulment of the Commission’s 31 October 2024 decision concerning Italy’s Article 22 referral in Case M.11766, NVIDIA / Run:ai.

### Dec 30, 2024 — Run:ai closes; Nvidia says it will open-source the software

Nvidia completed the Run:ai purchase ten days after EU clearance, and Run:ai's founders said the platform, which then supported only Nvidia GPUs, would be open-sourced so it could extend to the whole AI ecosystem, blunting concerns that Nvidia would use it to lock in its hardware.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n683 (Announcement)
- Source: SiliconANGLE · Dec 30, 2024 · https://siliconangle.com/2024/12/30/nvidia-completes-700m-runai-acquisition-following-antitrust-scrutiny/ — "Nvidia plans to open-source Run:ai’s platform following the acquisition, the latter company announced in a blog post today."

### Dec 20, 2024 — European Commission clears Run:ai unconditionally in its first post-Illumina Article 22 case

Although the deal fell below EU turnover thresholds, Italy's competition authority referred it to Brussels under Article 22 and the Commission opened a review in November. It found Run:ai had no significant position in GPU orchestration software and that customers had credible alternatives, and approved the deal without conditions; the US Justice Department had also examined it.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n682 (Regulatory)
- Source: European Commission · Dec 20, 2024 · https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_24_6548/IP_24_6548_EN.pdf — "The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR'), the proposed acquisition of Run:ai Labs Ltd (‘ Run:ai ') by NVIDIA Corporation (‘ NVIDIA' ). The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area (‘EEA')."

### Sep 30, 2024 — Italy refers Run:ai transaction to European Commission

Italy's competition authority submitted an Article 22 referral request concerning Nvidia's proposed acquisition of Run:ai. The request was sent to the European Commission.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n713 (Regulatory)
- Source: European Commission, Case M.11766 · Oct 31, 2024 · https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases1/202516/M_11766_10599624_2741_6.pdf — "On 30 September 2024, the Italian NCA submitted their Referral Request to the Commission."
- Editor's note: The document states that Italy formally requested the Commission to examine NVIDIA’s proposed acquisition of Run:ai under Article 22. It says the Italian NCA submitted the Referral Request to the Commission on 30 September 2024, which the Commission received the same day.

### Sep 26, 2024 — OctoAI, the Seattle model-serving startup, becomes 'now NVIDIA'

OctoAI, spun out of the University of Washington's Apache TVM project and once valued at $850 million, told customers it was winding down its services by October 31 as it was absorbed into Nvidia in a deal reported at roughly $250 million. Earlier in 2024 Nvidia had also picked up Shoreline.io and Brev.dev.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n681 (Announcement)
- Source: GeekWire · Sep 26, 2024 · https://www.geekwire.com/2024/chip-giant-nvidia-acquires-octoai-a-seattle-startup-that-helps-companies-run-ai-models/ — "OctoAI sent emails to customers informing them that it was winding down the commercial availability of its services, effective Oct. 31, according to a post on LinkedIn. It’s the latest AI-related acquisition for Nvidia, the dominant chipmaker that is riding huge tailwinds from the AI boom, thanks to its widely used GPUs, which are in high demand for training and running AI models."

### Aug 6, 2024 — Italy calls in Nvidia's proposed Run:ai acquisition

Italy's competition authority considered Nvidia's proposed Run:ai acquisition to meet applicable conditions of the Italian Competition Act. The authority exercised its call-in power over the transaction.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n711 (Regulatory)
- Source: European Commission, Case M.11766 · Oct 31, 2024 · https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases1/202516/M_11766_10599624_2741_6.pdf — "On 6 August 2024 the Italian NCA considered that the Transaction prima facie met the applicable conditions of the Italian Competition Act."
- Editor's note: The page states that on 6 August 2024 the Italian NCA considered the transaction prima facie met the applicable conditions of the Italian Competition Act. It also states that the authority exercised the Italian call-in on that date.

### Jul 2024 — Nvidia acquires Brev.dev

Nvidia acquired AI-development-platform startup Brev.dev. Nvidia confirmed the acquisition to CRN, and Brev.dev cofounder Nader Khalil announced it separately.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n710 (Update)
- Source: CRN · Jul 2024 · https://www.crn.com/news/ai/2024/nvidia-makes-fourth-software-acquisition-this-year-with-brev-dev — "An Nvidia spokesperson confirmed to CRN on Tuesday that it acquired Brev.dev, a San Francisco-based startup that provides an AI and machine learning development platform for building, training and deploying models on CPU- and GPU-based cloud instances."
- Source: Nader Khalil / Brev.dev · Jul 2024 · https://www.linkedin.com/posts/naderlikeladder_brevdev-has-been-acquired-by-nvidia-activity-7219052262373957633-fGsz — "Brev.dev has been acquired by NVIDIA!"
- Editor's note: The page states that Nvidia acquired Brev.dev and that an Nvidia spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to CRN. It also attributes a separate announcement to Brev.dev in a LinkedIn post; the article is from July 2024, supporting the stated month.

### Jun 18, 2024 — Bloomberg reports Nvidia agreement to buy Shoreline.io

Bloomberg reported that Nvidia had agreed to buy Shoreline.io. The report cited people familiar with the matter.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n709 (Report)
- Source: Bloomberg News · Jun 18, 2024 · https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/nvidia-is-said-to-reach-deal-to-buy-software-startup-shoreline — "Nvidia Corp. has agreed to buy Shoreline.io, a startup for software developers founded by a former Amazon Web Services executive, people familiar with the matter said."
- Editor's note: The page states that Nvidia had agreed to buy Shoreline.io and attributes the information to people familiar with the matter. However, the readable page text does not provide an event or publication date that confirms 2024-06-18.

### May 2, 2024 — Deci for about $300 million: two Israeli AI startups in one week

A week after Run:ai, Nvidia agreed to acquire Deci, a Tel Aviv company whose neural-architecture-search tools shrink and speed up deep learning models, for an estimated $300 million. The pair took Nvidia's spending on Israeli startups past $1 billion in a week.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n680 (Announcement)
- Source: Calcalist · May 2, 2024 · https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bkj6phggr — "Nvidia has agreed to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) company Deci. According to estimates obtained by Calcalist, the value of the deal is $300 million."

### Apr 24, 2024 — Run:ai, a GPU orchestration startup, for a reported $700 million starts the 2024 software buying spree

Nvidia agreed to buy the Israeli Kubernetes-based scheduling company, reportedly for about $700 million, its largest purchase since Mellanox, to help customers squeeze more out of their GPU clusters. It was the first of at least five 2024 acquisitions, most of them Israeli or AI-infrastructure software firms.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n679 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Apr 24, 2024 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/runai/ — "To help customers make more efficient use of their AI computing resources, NVIDIA today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Run:ai, a Kubernetes-based workload management and orchestration software provider."

### Mar 7, 2022 — Excelero becomes part of Nvidia

Excelero became part of Nvidia. Nvidia said Excelero's NVMesh technology would be integrated into its enterprise software stack.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n708 (Update)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Mar 7, 2022 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/excelero-storage-software/ — "Excelero, a Tel Aviv-based provider of high-performance software-defined storage, is now a part of NVIDIA."
- Editor's note: The page states that Excelero is now part of NVIDIA and that its technology will be integrated into NVIDIA’s enterprise software stack; it identifies NVMesh as Excelero’s software. The readable page text does not provide an event or publication date, so it does not support the stated date.

### Feb 7, 2022 — Nvidia and SoftBank abandon the Arm deal; SoftBank keeps the $1.25 billion prepayment and plans an IPO

Seventeen months after signing, the companies terminated the agreement, citing significant regulatory challenges, and Nvidia wrote off the $1.36 billion it had prepaid. Arm listed on Nasdaq in September 2023 at a $54 billion valuation; Nvidia kept a 20-year Arm architecture licence and went on to build its own Arm-based Grace CPUs.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n678 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Feb 7, 2022 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-softbank-group-announce-termination-of-nvidias-acquisition-of-arm-limited — "NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (“SBG” or “SoftBank”) today announced the termination of the previously announced transaction whereby NVIDIA would acquire Arm Limited (“Arm”) from SBG. The parties agreed to terminate the Agreement because of significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction, despite good faith efforts by the parties."

### Jan 10, 2022 — Bright Computing becomes part of Nvidia

Bright Computing became part of Nvidia. Nvidia said Bright Cluster Manager would join its accelerated-computing software stack.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n707 (Update)
- Source: NVIDIA Blog · Jan 10, 2022 · https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/bright-computing-hpc/ — "Bright Computing, a leader in software for managing high performance computing systems used by more than 700 organizations worldwide, is now part of NVIDIA."
- Editor's note: The page states that Bright Computing is now part of NVIDIA and that Bright Cluster Manager becomes part of NVIDIA’s accelerated-computing software stack. The readable page text does not provide an event or publication date to support 2022-01-10.

### Dec 2, 2021 — FTC sues to block the Arm acquisition as a vertical threat to chip competition

The Federal Trade Commission voted 4-0 to challenge the deal, arguing that owning Arm would let Nvidia stifle rivals that depend on Arm designs in data center CPUs, automotive and DPUs, and give it access to competitors' confidential information. The UK's CMA had already opened an in-depth probe on national-security and competition grounds and the European Commission a Phase 2 review.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n677 (Legal)
- Source: Federal Trade Commission · Dec 2, 2021 · https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/12/ftc-sues-block-40-billion-semiconductor-chip-merger — "The Federal Trade Commission today sued to block U.S. chip supplier Nvidia Corp.’s $40 billion acquisition of U.K. chip design provider Arm Ltd. Semiconductor chips power the computers and technologies that are essential to our modern economy and society."

### Nov 16, 2021 — UK refers Nvidia's Arm acquisition to CMA Phase 2

The UK secretary of state referred Nvidia's proposed acquisition of Arm to the CMA for a Phase 2 investigation. The referral cited competition and national-security concerns.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n706 (Regulatory)
- Source: UK Competition and Markets Authority · Nov 16, 2021 · https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/nvidia-slash-arm-merger-inquiry — "16 November 2021: The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has referred NVIDIA’s proposed acquisition of Arm to the CMA for a phase 2 in-depth investigation on the grounds of competition and national security concerns."
- Editor's note: The page states that on 16 November 2021 the DCMS Secretary of State referred NVIDIA’s proposed acquisition of Arm to the CMA for a Phase 2 in-depth investigation, citing competition and national-security concerns. The quoted text appears on the page.

### Aug 20, 2021 — UK CMA finds competition concerns in Nvidia's Arm purchase

The UK Competition and Markets Authority found that Nvidia's proposed purchase of Arm should proceed to a Phase 2 investigation. The CMA cited competition grounds for the in-depth investigation.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n704 (Regulatory)
- Source: UK Competition and Markets Authority · Aug 20, 2021 · https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-finds-competition-concerns-with-nvidia-s-purchase-of-arm — "Therefore, the CMA found that the merger should be progressed to an in-depth Phase 2 investigation on competition grounds."
- Editor's note: The page states that the CMA determined an in-depth investigation was warranted on competition grounds and says the merger should progress to a Phase 2 investigation. It was published on 2021-08-20.

### Jun 10, 2021 — Nvidia announces agreement to acquire DeepMap

Nvidia announced an agreement to acquire high-definition mapping startup DeepMap. The contemporaneous report described the transaction as pending.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n703 (Announcement)
- Source: TechCrunch · Jun 10, 2021 · https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/10/nvidia-acquires-hi-def-mapping-startup-deepmap-to-bolster-av-technology/ — "Chipmaker Nvidia is acquiring DeepMap, the high-definition mapping startup announced."
- Editor's note: The page states that Nvidia is acquiring DeepMap and describes DeepMap as a high-definition mapping startup. It was published June 10, 2021, and says the acquisition was expected to be finalized in Q3 2021, supporting that it was pending.

### Sep 13, 2020 — Nvidia agrees to buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion in shares and cash

The largest chip deal ever proposed would have put the architecture behind nearly every smartphone under the company that dominated AI accelerators, with SoftBank keeping under 10 percent of Nvidia. Huang promised to keep Arm's open licensing model and its Cambridge headquarters; customers including Qualcomm, Google and Microsoft objected within months.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n676 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Sep 13, 2020 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai — "NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) today announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm Limited from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund (together, “SoftBank”) in a transaction valued at $40 billion."

### May 4, 2020 — Nvidia announces plan to acquire Cumulus Networks

Nvidia announced plans to acquire Cumulus Networks. The companies did not announce a purchase price.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n699 (Announcement)
- Source: TechCrunch · May 4, 2020 · https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/04/nvidia-acquires-cumulus-networks/ — "Nvidia today announced its plans to acquire Cumulus Networks, an open-source-centric company that specializes in helping enterprises optimize their data center networking stack."
- Editor's note: The article states that Nvidia announced plans to acquire Cumulus Networks and that the companies did not disclose the acquisition price. It is dated May 4, 2020.

### Apr 27, 2020 — Mellanox deal closes at $7 billion, the start of Nvidia's networking business

The acquisition completed at a transaction value of about $7 billion, adding Mellanox's roughly 3,000 employees and the InfiniBand, Spectrum Ethernet and BlueField DPU lines that became the networking half of Nvidia's data center segment. Within five years networking was a multi-billion-dollar quarterly business inside Nvidia.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n675 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Apr 27, 2020 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-completes-acquisition-of-mellanox-creating-major-force-driving-next-gen-data-centers — "NVIDIA today announced the completion of its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., for a transaction value of $7 billion. The acquisition, initially announced on March 11, 2019, unites two of the world’s leading companies in high performance and data center computing."

### Apr 16, 2020 — China's SAMR clears Mellanox with conditions after a year-long review

Thirteen months after signing, China's State Administration for Market Regulation became the last authority to approve the deal, attaching behavioural conditions for six years: no bundling of GPUs with networking gear, supply on fair and non-discriminatory terms, and no restricting Chinese customers' access. The EU, Mexico and the US waiting period had already cleared.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n674 (Regulatory)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Apr 16, 2020 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-receives-approval-to-proceed-with-mellanox-acquisition-from-chinas-antitrust-authority — "NVIDIA today announced that it has received approval from all necessary authorities to proceed with its planned acquisition of Mellanox, as announced in March 2019. The latest approval by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation follows antitrust approval from the European Commission and Mexico and the expiration of the waiting period under U.S. antitrust laws."

### Mar 5, 2020 — Nvidia acquires SwiftStack

Nvidia acquired data-storage and management company SwiftStack. The transaction value was not disclosed.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n698 (Update)
- Source: TechCrunch · Mar 5, 2020 · https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/05/nvidia-acquires-data-storage-and-management-platform-swiftstack/ — "Nvidia today announced that it has acquired SwiftStack, a software-centric data storage and management platform that supports public cloud, on-premises and edge deployments."
- Editor's note: The TechCrunch article states that Nvidia acquired SwiftStack and that the acquisition price was not disclosed. It is dated March 5, 2020.

### Mar 11, 2019 — Nvidia agrees to buy Mellanox for $6.9 billion, outbidding Intel for the InfiniBand maker

Nvidia's first big acquisition, at $125 a share in cash, brought in the Israeli maker of InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnects that already sat inside most of the world's top supercomputers, after reports that Intel and Xilinx had also bid. Jensen Huang framed it as uniting compute and networking for data-center-scale computing; the deal needed approvals in the US, EU, Mexico and China.

- Entry: https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-acquisitions#n673 (Announcement)
- Source: NVIDIA Newsroom · Mar 11, 2019 · https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-mellanox-for-6-9-billion — "NVIDIA and Mellanox today announced that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Mellanox. Pursuant to the agreement, NVIDIA will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Mellanox for $125 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $6.9 billion."

## Cause and effect

- China's SAMR clears Mellanox with conditions after a year-long review led to China opens an antitrust investigation into Nvidia [on https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-china-export-controls#n60] (SAMR's 2020 approval imposed conditions on Nvidia's Mellanox acquisition, and its later investigation concerned suspected violations of those approval conditions.)
- China opens an antitrust investigation into Nvidia [on https://whatledto.com/events/nvidia-china-export-controls#n60] led to China says Nvidia violated its antimonopoly law over the Mellanox conditions (SAMR opened an investigation into suspected violations of the Mellanox-approval conditions, and the later preliminary finding said Nvidia had violated the law and those conditions.)

## Where sources disagree or fall silent

- SAMR said in September 2025 that Nvidia had preliminarily violated the Mellanox clearance conditions, but the timeline does not state what conduct was at issue or whether SAMR imposed penalties after its further investigation.
- Nvidia’s challenge to the European Commission decision accepting Italy’s Article 22 referral of Run:ai remains unresolved in the timeline.
- The OpenAI agreement is non-binding, and definitive investment terms were still being negotiated months after the September 2025 announcement.
- The Groq and Enfabrica arrangements were structured as licences and hires rather than acquisitions; the timeline does not show whether any authority will review their competitive effects or how the remaining companies will operate after the staff departures.
- Hugging Face has not yet received the required US and EU merger approvals, and the timeline does not establish how Nvidia’s commitments to hardware neutrality and continued support for other silicon vendors would be monitored or enforced.

## What to watch next

- Jan 2027: NVIDIA expects Hugging Face acquisition to close in first half of 2027 — Closing would turn NVIDIA’s announced $11.9 billion purchase and employee-retention arrangement into its completed ownership of the major open-model platform. (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581026000078/nvda-20260902.htm)
- Mar 14, 2027: NVIDIA GTC 2027 begins in San Jose — It is NVIDIA’s next major developer conference after the expected Hugging Face closing window and a likely venue for substantive integration, open-platform and dealmaking disclosures. (https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/faq/)

## Who is involved

- Nvidia (company): Buyer, investor and acquirer pursuing networking, AI infrastructure, scheduling, inference and frontier-lab deals.
- Jensen Huang (person): Nvidia chief executive who led the Mellanox, Arm and Hugging Face transactions and made the Hugging Face openness commitments.
- European Commission (regulator): EU authority that reviewed and unconditionally cleared Run:ai after Italy’s Article 22 referral and is expected to review Hugging Face.
- Run:ai (company): GPU-orchestration software company acquired by Nvidia for a reported $700 million after an EU Article 22 review.
- Arm (company): Chip-architecture licensor that Nvidia agreed but failed to acquire from SoftBank.
- Mellanox (company): Israeli interconnect maker acquired by Nvidia for about $7 billion in 2020.
- UK Competition and Markets Authority (regulator): UK authority that found competition concerns and conducted a Phase 2 inquiry into the Arm transaction.
- Anthropic (company): Frontier AI lab that received part of Nvidia’s previously announced investment through its Series G financing.
- Clément Delangue (person): Hugging Face chief executive who said he approached Huang about a transaction weeks before the definitive agreement.
- Hugging Face (company): Open-model platform Nvidia agreed to acquire for about $12.93 billion, subject to US and EU approvals.
- Intel (company): Chipmaker in which Nvidia agreed to invest $5 billion while jointly developing data-center and PC products.
- Italian Competition Authority (regulator): Italian authority that called in, received notification of, and referred the Run:ai transaction.
- Microsoft (company): Investor in OpenAI's financing round and previously announced investor in Anthropic.
- SoftBank (company): Investor in OpenAI's financing round.
- State Administration for Market Regulation (regulator): Chinese authority that conditionally cleared Mellanox and later said Nvidia had preliminarily violated those conditions.
- Brev.dev (company): AI development-platform startup acquired by Nvidia in 2024.
- Bright Computing (company): HPC cluster-management software company incorporated into Nvidia’s software stack in 2022.
- CoreWeave (company): AI cloud provider that sold $2 billion of shares to Nvidia in January 2026.
- Cumulus Networks (company): Network-software company Nvidia agreed to acquire in 2020 for an undisclosed price.
- Daniel Levy (person): Leader of Safe Superintelligence Inc.
- Deci (company): Israeli model-optimization startup Nvidia agreed to acquire in 2024 for an estimated $300 million.
- DeepMap (company): High-definition mapping startup that Nvidia agreed to acquire in 2021.
- Enfabrica (company): AI networking-chip startup whose founder, staff and technology licence Nvidia obtained in a reported deal exceeding $900 million without acquiring the company.
- Excelero (company): Storage-software company whose NVMesh technology Nvidia integrated into its enterprise software stack.
- Federal Trade Commission (regulator): US agency that sued to block Nvidia’s Arm acquisition in December 2021.
- General Court of the European Union (regulator): Court before which Nvidia brought its challenge to the Run:ai referral decision.
- Gretel (company): Synthetic-data startup reportedly acquired by Nvidia in a nine-figure transaction in 2025.
- Groq (company): Inference-chip company that licensed patents and software to Nvidia and lost key leaders and staff to Nvidia in a reported $20 billion arrangement while remaining nominally independent.
- Illumex (company): Israeli semantic-data startup reportedly acquired by Nvidia for about $60 million.
- Ilya Sutskever (person): Leader of Safe Superintelligence Inc.
- Jonathan Ross (person): Groq founder hired by Nvidia as part of its licence-plus-hire arrangement.
- Kumo AI (company): Predictive-model startup reportedly acquired by Nvidia for more than $400 million.
- Lepton AI (company): GPU-cloud marketplace acquired by Nvidia and used as the basis for DGX Cloud Lepton.
- Mira Murati (person): Founder of Thinking Machines Lab and former OpenAI chief technology officer.
- Nader Khalil (person): Brev.dev cofounder who announced its acquisition by Nvidia.
- OctoAI (company): Seattle model-serving startup absorbed by Nvidia in a deal reported at roughly $250 million.
- OpenAI (company): Frontier AI lab with a non-binding agreement for Nvidia to invest up to $100 billion as Nvidia systems are deployed.
- Rochan Sankar (person): Enfabrica founder and chief executive hired by Nvidia under its licence-plus-hire arrangement.
- Safe Superintelligence Inc. (company): AI research company that announced a long-term partnership and Nvidia investment.
- SchedMD (company): Developer of the Slurm workload manager, acquired by Nvidia with a commitment to retain Slurm’s openness and vendor neutrality.
- Shoreline.io (company): Software startup reported to have agreed to a sale to Nvidia in 2024.
- Sunny Madra (person): Groq president whom Nvidia agreed to hire under its licence deal with Groq.
- SwiftStack (company): Data-storage and management company acquired by Nvidia in 2020 for an undisclosed price.
- Thinking Machines Lab (company): Mira Murati’s AI lab, which received an undisclosed Nvidia investment alongside a commitment to deploy Vera Rubin systems.
- UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (regulator): UK department whose secretary of state intervened in and referred the Arm transaction.
- US Department of Justice (regulator): US agency that examined Nvidia’s acquisition of Run:ai.
- xAI (company): AI company that named Nvidia as a strategic investor in its $20 billion Series E round.
- Yangqing Jia (person): Led Lepton AI when Nvidia closed its purchase of the company.

## Changelog

- Sep 9, 2026: Linked 2 entries with US Export Controls on Nvidia AI Chips to China: A100 to H20 to H200.
- Sep 9, 2026: Summary, key players and catalysts refreshed.
- Sep 9, 2026: Added 16 node(s): 2020-03-05 Nvidia acquires SwiftStack; 2020-05-04 Nvidia announces plan to acquire Cumulus Networks; 2021-06-10 Nvidia announces agreement to acquire DeepMap; 2021-08-20 UK CMA finds competition concerns in Nvidia's Arm purchase and 12 more.
- Sep 9, 2026: Research run found 2 candidate node(s).
- Sep 9, 2026: Research run found 24 candidate node(s).
- Sep 9, 2026: Seeded 25 hand-verified node(s) from nvidia-acquisitions.yaml.

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