Nickel-catalyzed C-F activations enabled chemo-divergent C-C formation with alkynes by chelation assistance. The judicious choice of the al-kynes electronic properties allowed the selective synthesis of double-insertion aromatic homologation or alkyne mono-annulation products by C-F/C-H activation. Based on the unambiguous crystallographic characterization of an unprecedented 9-membered nickelocyclic intermediate and extensive DFT studies, a plausible mechanistic rationale