Hugging Face is in early talks to sell itself for $13 billion or more, according to people familiar with the discussions, which surfaced over the weekend of 22 and 23 August. The company has retained a bank to gauge interest from acquirers, though the process is still at an early stage and no buyer has been identified. A deal at that level would value the AI hosting platform at nearly three times the $4.5 billion it reached in its 2023 round, led by Salesforce Ventures with Alphabet, GV and IBM Ventures also participating.
Hugging Face turned down a smaller offer earlier this year, a $500 million investment from Nvidia that would have valued it at roughly $7 billion, reportedly over concern about a single dominant investor. Its revenue is estimated at more than $100 million a year, undisclosed, and chief executive Clem Delangue has said the company is close to profitability.
What makes the platform valuable is also what makes a sale complicated. Hugging Face hosts the open models, datasets and tooling much of the AI industry builds on, and its neutrality between rival labs is part of the pitch. Delangue has described that as a responsibility rather than a business line, saying the company is building a platform for a community that trusts it with their data and models. An acquirer with its own stake in the AI race would inherit that trust too.
Hugging Face has neither confirmed nor denied the talks, and no price, buyer or timeline is official. A bank mandate at the exploratory stage is a long way from a signed deal, and the company that turned down Nvidia for fear of a dominant backer would, at $13 billion, be choosing one outright.
