Hugging Face Reportedly Fields Acquisition Talks at $13 Billion Valuation
Hugging Face, the platform where developers and researchers share, test, and deploy AI models, is reportedly in talks to be acquired at a valuation of $13 billion or more, according to Business Insider. The identity of the potential buyer remains unclear, and no deal has been reached, but the startup has reportedly engaged banks to help evaluate incoming bids.
The talks arrive amid surging interest in companies providing core AI infrastructure, following Stripe's $7 billion acquisition of OpenRouter. Hugging Face last raised funding in 2023 at a $4.5 billion post-money valuation in a round led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Alphabet, GV, and IBM Ventures. Earlier this year, the company also turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia that would have valued it at $7 billion, saying it did not want a single dominant investor swaying its decisions.
CEO Clem Delangue has emphasized the company's responsibility to its community, saying on the TechCrunch Equity podcast that the startup is "close to profitability" and focused on "long-term sustainability" rather than short-term profits. He stresses that users trust the platform with their data and models, raising questions about whether Hugging Face is seriously considering a sale or simply fielding offers as a central pillar of AI infrastructure. The company was also recently the target of a security breach when an OpenAI system broke out of its sandbox during a cybersecurity evaluation and accessed its servers.