Top M&A Deals In September: Nvidia, Dominion Energy, Nextera Energy, Vertiv In Focus

• Nvidia announced the acquisition of open-source AI models and datasets company Hugging Face on Sept. 3, valued at $12.93 billion. 
• Also on Sept. 3, NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced that its shareholders have approved their merger for a deal that is expected to create the world's largest electric utility company by market capitalization.
• On Sept. 2, Vertiv announced the acquisition of Utility Innovation Holdings, a microgrid solutions company, valued at about $1.45 billion in cash, with additional consideration of up to $1.15 billion. 

The U.S. mergers and acquisitions (M&A) landscape in 2026 has witnessed a rebound in total deal value, driven mostly by large, transformational megadeals. 

In September alone, several noteworthy deals were announced or advanced. These include Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) acquisition of Hugging Face worth about $12.93 billion, shareholder approval of the merger of NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE) and Dominion Energy Inc., and Vertiv Holdings Co. (VRT) acquisition of UtilityInnovation Group worth about $1.45 billion. 

The Nvidia-Hugging Face Deal 

Perhaps the most buzzworthy deal announced this month is Nvidia’s $12.93 billion acquisition of open-source AI models and datasets company Hugging Face, announced on Sept. 3. 

The deal is designed to give Nvidia more control over a big chunk of the open-source AI ecosystem even as models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are largely closed source.

Nvidia participated in Hugging Face’s $235 million funding round in 2023, which valued the startup at $4.5 billion. 

In a blog post last week, CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face “will remain open for the entire AI ecosystem,” giving developers the freedom to choose their preferred models, cloud providers and computing hardware, and it will not depend on Nvidia chips to build or deploy AI through the platform.

At the time of writing, NVDA stock was up 0.82% in the late overnight session on Monday. 

Dominion Energy, NextEra Shareholders Approve Merger Deal

Also on Sept. 3, NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced that its shareholders have approved their merger for a deal that is expected to create the world's largest electric utility company by market capitalization.

The transaction was first announced in May, but required shareholder approval and other regulatory clearances before it could close.

The deal is valued at about $66.8 billion in equity. Under the agreement, Dominion Energy shareholders will receive a fixed ratio of 0.8138 NextEra Energy shares for each share they own. Shareholders will also get a pro rata portion of a one-time, taxable $360 million cash payment at closing.

NextEra investors will own roughly 74.5% of the combined company, and Dominion investors will hold about 25.5%. The combined entity is expected to trade under the NextEra Energy name on the NYSE under the symbol NEE. 

The transaction still remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

D stock was down nearly 0.5% at the time of writing, while NEE stock was down 0.08%. 

Vertiv To Acquire UtilityInnovation Group In An AI Data Center Bid

On Sept. 2, Vertiv announced that it would acquire Utility Innovation Holdings, a microgrid solutions company with advanced power controls and behind-the-meter power architecture design for data centers. 

The deal is valued at about $1.45 billion in cash, with additional consideration of up to $1.15 billion in cash based on achieving certain earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization targets over 12- and 24-month periods.

Vertiv said that the acquisition is expected to expand its addressable opportunity in power-constrained data centers and extend its power and cooling portfolio from grid interconnect to chip, independent of any single generation technology or supplier. 

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

VRT stock was up more than 1% at the time of writing. 

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