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AI startup Hugging Face hits $4.5 billion valuation on Microsoft and Amazon investments

Several tech giants have invested in the AI tech startup that provides a platform for sharing code and models.

Donovan Erskine

August 24, 2023 12:10 PM

Hugging Face

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The AI business has been booming over the last couple of years, and several of the world’s biggest tech companies are investing money and resources into the development and implementation of artificial technology in their own lineup of products and services. Hugging Face is a relatively new startup in the space, offering a platform for the exchange of AI code and models, and it’s recently received major investments from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and NVIDIA. With that, Hugging Face is currently sitting at a valuation of $4.5 billion.

We learned of Hugging Face’s recent investments and valuation through a CNBC report. This list of investors includes the aforementioned companies, as well as AMD, Intel, Salesforce, IBM, and Qualcomm. This came during a recent round of fundraising in which the company reeled in $245 million. According to Hugging Face, the money will be used to hire more workers and build out a talented staff.

Hugging Face CEO and cofounder Clement Delangue shared additional information about the company in an interview with CNBC. “AI builders are using Hugging Face all day, every day,” Delangue said. “Maybe in five years, you’re going to have like 100 million AI builders. And if all of them use Hugging Face all day, every day, we’ll obviously be in a good position,” he continued.

Hugging Face originally started with an aim to create an AI chatbot for iPhones, but has since redirected its efforts toward building an expansive platform where developers can share code and acquire tools to build their own language models and other AI-powered products. With massive investments from some of the world’s biggest tech companies, it’ll be interesting to see if Hugging Face is able to become a major player in the AI space.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_