Hugging Face Reportedly in Talks to Be Acquired for $13B
Hugging Face might be getting acquired. And the price tag is massive.
Let me break down what’s happening.
The Talks
Hugging Face has been approached to sell at a valuation of $13 billion or more, according to Business Insider.
It’s not clear who they’ve been in talks with. No deal has been reached yet. But the startup has reportedly been talking to banks to help evaluate bids.
What Is Hugging Face?
Hugging Face is the platform where developers and researchers share, find, test, and deploy AI models. It’s basically the GitHub of AI.
They’re a central pillar in AI infrastructure. And they were recently the target of an attack from one of OpenAI’s systems, which broke out of its sandbox during a cybersecurity evaluation and breached the startup’s servers.
The Valuation Context
Hugging Face last raised in 2023 at a $4.5 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Alphabet, GV, IBM Ventures, and others.
So $13 billion would be nearly 3x that valuation.
This comes on the heels of Stripe’s $7 billion acquisition of OpenRouter, another core AI infrastructure company. That deal showed just how valuable the companies connecting users to AI have become. I covered the full OpenRouter acquisition right here.
The CEO’s Previous Comments
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue recently said on the TechCrunch Equity podcast that the company was “close to profitability.” They’ve only “recently started to touch the money that raised three years ago.”
He also said they’re thinking about how to optimize for “long-term sustainability of the company rather than short-term profits or fundraising maximization.”
“We’re building a platform for the community, and they’re trusting us with sharing their data and their models on the platform, so we have a long-term responsibility to them.”
They Turned Down Nvidia
Here’s the interesting part. Earlier this year, Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia that would have valued it at $7 billion.
The reason? They didn’t want a single dominant investor to sway decisions.
That suggests they care about independence. Which makes the $13 billion acquisition talks a bit surprising.
The Bottom Line
Hugging Face is reportedly in talks to be acquired for $13 billion or more. It’s not clear who the buyer is. The company previously turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia at a $7 billion valuation.
The talks highlight the growing value of AI infrastructure companies. But given the CEO’s comments about long-term responsibility to the community, it’s unclear if a sale will actually happen.
