Hugging Face, an AI startup, has achieved a $4.5 billion valuation following a $235 million funding round supported by major tech entities like Salesforce, Google, and Nvidia. This funding reflects the escalating influence of AI, with significant contributions from various industry giants.
25 August 2023 – AI startup Hugging Face has secured a remarkable valuation of $4.5 billion through a successful funding round of $235 million. Noteworthy backers in this round include technology powerhouses Salesforce, Google (a subsidiary of Alphabet), and Nvidia. This funding serves as a testament to the escalating prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its rapidly expanding adoption in the technology sphere, attracting substantial investments from major players in the industry.
The surge in funding mirrors the increasing significance of AI, regarded by many as the forefront of technological advancement. The advent of OpenAI’s widely embraced chatbot, ChatGPT, has sparked the emergence of various AI startups such as Microsoft-supported Inflection AI and Google-endorsed Runway, all of which have secured funding to fuel their AI endeavors.
The heightened competition among industry giants has also elevated the significance of Nvidia, renowned for its chip designs heavily employed in generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT. The market response has been robust, as evidenced by Nvidia’s tripling share value this year, poised to reach a historic peak after impressive quarterly results.
Contributing to Hugging Face’s latest funding round were prominent players including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Qualcomm, IBM, Amazon, and venture capital firm Sound Ventures, endorsed by Ashton Kutcher.
Hugging Face, distinguished for its open-source platform facilitating the creation of applications utilizing machine learning, intends to capitalize on this financial boost to fortify its workforce through recruitment efforts and to advance its technology infrastructure. Presently boasting a staff count of 170, the company has witnessed a surge in revenue demand, projecting a fivefold increase over the course of this year, according to Clément Delangue, the CEO and co-founder.
Delangue posits, “In five years, every tech company will be an AI company,” underscoring the pivotal role AI is set to play across the technology landscape in the near future. – reference: Reuters
