Over $200M raised for Hugging Face from Nvidia and Salesforce
In a momentous turn of events, this pioneering startup has amassed a staggering $235 million in capital during a Series D funding cycle. Noteworthy accounts from reliable sources, including The Information, corroborated by none other than the eminent Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, on X (formerly recognized as Twitter), substantiate this development. The illustrious cohort of investors includes industry giants such as Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, IBM, Salesforce, and Sound Ventures. This investment has prompted an evaluation of Hugging Face at an astounding $4.5 billion — a twofold increase from its valuation in May of the previous year. This valuation reportedly exceeds Hugging Face’s annualized revenue by over a hundredfold, emblematic of the fervent appetite for AI and the platforms essential for its advancement.
Hugging Face is celebrated for offering an array of data science hosting and development tools. Analogous to a GitHub repository for AI-related code, models, and datasets, the platform provides a repository akin to a virtual canvas. Additionally, it features web applications that ingeniously demonstrate AI-powered applications. Further, Hugging Face proffers libraries for diverse tasks, encompassing dataset processing, model assessment, and even an enterprise iteration of the hub, accommodating both software-as-a-service and on-premises installations.
Among the platform’s premium features is AutoTrain, an innovation designed to automate the intricate process of AI model training. The Inference API, a pivotal component, empowers developers to deploy models sans the burdens of managing the underlying infrastructure. Furthermore, the platform boasts Infinity, an instrument tailored to enhance the data processing speed of models in production.
In the words of Clément Delangue, the co-founder and CEO, “AI represents the novel paradigm for software development. This seismic shift stands as the most pivotal of the decade, surpassing the former software evolution due to its augmented capabilities and accelerated pace, attributing the prior path paved by software.” Delangue envisions Hugging Face as the preeminent open platform that will catalyze this paradigm shift.
The inception of Hugging Face traces back to the year 2016 when French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf initiated a venture oriented towards developing a chatbot application catering to adolescents. This narrative, however, underwent an evolution as the trio opted to divulge the algorithmic kernel of the application. Consequently, Hugging Face’s trajectory shifted towards the establishment of a comprehensive platform facilitating the creation, experimentation, and deployment of machine learning models.
Presently, Hugging Face boasts a clientele count of 10,000, with an impressive network encompassing over 50,000 entities. The pinnacle of their offerings, the model hub, currently hosts an excess of 1 million repositories, exemplifying their substantial influence.
The impetus behind this expansion finds its roots in the fervent enterprise interest in AI. A HubSpot poll reveals that 43% of corporate leaders express intentions of augmenting investments in AI and automation tools throughout the course of 2023. Notably, 31% contend that AI and automation tools are of paramount importance to their overarching business strategies.
A substantial portion of Hugging Face’s repertoire falls under the umbrella of MLOps, an instrumental classification encompassing tools and practices streamlining the trajectory from AI model development to operational implementation, alongside subsequent maintenance and monitoring. Notably, market forecasts underscore the robust potential of the MLOps sector, with projections approximating a value of $16.61 billion by the year 2030.
However, Hugging Face’s contributions transcend the realm of MLOps. In the year 2021, they embarked on the BigScience initiative, a collaborative undertaking aimed at conceiving an open-source language model of commensurate potency with OpenAI’s GPT-3. This endeavor culminated in the realization of “Bloom,” a versatile multilingual model accessible for experimentation via the Hugging Face model hub. Notably, Hugging Face’s repertoire extends to the publication of diverse open-source models, including collaborative efforts such as the “StarCoder” AI model in partnership with ServiceNow and a free variant of OpenAI’s renowned “ChatGPT,” realized in association with the German nonprofit, LAION.
Furthermore, Hugging Face has fostered strategic affiliations with prominent cloud service providers, many of whom have simultaneously invested in the company. Collaborative undertakings with Nvidia facilitated the expansion of cloud computational access through Nvidia’s DGX computing platform. A partnership with Amazon sought to extend Hugging Face’s solutions to AWS customers, harnessing the potential of Amazon’s custom Trainium chips to further develop their flagship model “Bloom.” Concurrently, a collaboration with Microsoft has led to the inception of “Hugging Face Endpoints on Azure,” furnishing a scalable production solution hosted through the Azure platform.
The recent influx of investment has emboldened Hugging Face’s resolve to intensify its multifaceted endeavors spanning research, enterprise solutions, and the nurturing of startups. Presently staffed by 170 individuals, the company’s trajectory encompasses plans for the recruitment of fresh talent over the ensuing months.
In cumulative endeavors thus far, Hugging Face has accrued an impressive sum of $395.2 million, positioning it prominently amongst the most well-funded AI startups within the sphere. Leading the hierarchy are entities such as OpenAI ($11.3 billion), Anthropic ($1.6 billion), Inflection AI ($1.5 billion), Cohere ($435 million), and Adept ($415 million).
This narrative unequivocally establishes Hugging Face as an influential force within the dynamic realm of AI, poised to catalyze transformative change on multiple fronts.
