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    Hugging Face
    Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Infrastructure

    Hugging Face

    United States flagUnited States

    "The AI community building the future"

    Founded 2016 Brooklyn, New York, USA CEO: Clément Delangue
    Community

    About

    Hugging Face started in 2016 as a chatbot app for teenagers, the name came from the smiley emoji they used. Founders Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf quickly realized the real opportunity was in open-source machine learning tools. By 2018 they had released the Transformers library, which became the standard way to work with models like BERT and GPT. Today that library gets over a million monthly downloads and works with PyTorch, TensorFlow, and JAX.

    The Hugging Face Hub is the world's largest open-source AI repository, hosting more than 500,000 models and 150,000 datasets. Developers can upload models, version them with Git, and deploy interactive demos through Spaces. The company also maintains popular open-source tools like Gradio (acquired in 2022), Datasets, Accelerate, and Optimum. For enterprises, Hugging Face offers private model hosting, fine-tuning with AutoTrain, and dedicated inference endpoints.

    In 2023 the company raised a $235 million Series D led by Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce, AMD, and Intel, reaching a $4.5 billion valuation. Revenue comes from enterprise subscriptions and API usage, estimated in the tens of millions annually. With headquarters in Brooklyn and a distributed team across 20 countries, Hugging Face remains independent and focused on democratizing AI access.

    Products & Sub-brands

    Transformers LibraryHugging Face HubSpacesGradioDatasets LibraryAccelerateAutoTrainInference APIEnterprise HubOptimum

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who owns Hugging Face?
    Hugging Face is privately held, owned by its co-founders (Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf) and investors including Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce, AMD, and Intel. The company has not been acquired and remains independent.
    Who is the CEO of Hugging Face?
    Clément Delangue is the CEO and co-founder. He previously worked at Moodstocks (acquired by Google) and is a vocal advocate for open-source AI, frequently speaking at conferences and on social media.
    How much is Hugging Face worth?
    Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion after its Series D funding round in 2023, when it raised $235 million from major tech investors. It is not yet publicly traded.
    Hugging Face vs. GitHub Models: What's the difference?
    Hugging Face is a dedicated AI platform for hosting, sharing, and deploying machine learning models, while GitHub Models is a newer offering from Microsoft integrated into the GitHub ecosystem. Hugging Face has a larger open-source model library (500,000+ models), while GitHub Models benefits from tight integration with GitHub repos and Codespaces.
    Is Hugging Face still in business?
    Yes, Hugging Face is actively growing. As of 2025, it continues to expand enterprise offerings, raise funding, and maintain its position as the leading open-source AI platform with no signs of financial trouble.

    Keywords

    Hugging FaceTransformersopen-source AImachine learningNLPmodel hubGradioSpacesAI communitydemocratize AI

    Company Info

    Founded
    2016
    Founder
    Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf
    CEO
    Clément Delangue
    Headquarters
    Brooklyn, New York, USA
    Industry
    Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Infrastructure
    Founders
    Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf
    Valuation
    $4.5 billion (2023)
    Latest Funding
    $235 million Series D (2023)
    Models on Hub
    500,000+
    Datasets on Hub
    150,000+

    Official Website

    huggingface.co/

    Links

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