Hugging Face Inc., a startup that develops artificial intelligence software and hosts software for other companies, announced on Thursday that Google, Amazon (AMZN.US), NVIDIA (NVDA), Intel (INTC), Salesforce Inc., and other companies under Alphabet Inc. participated in this round of financing. CEO Clement Delangue stated in an interview that the company has raised $395 million to date.
This deal reflects investors' enthusiasm for investing in AI startups and the growing interest in open-source and free AI software throughout the tech industry.
Founded in 2016, the platform allows companies and individuals to share AI models that others can use, including Google, Microsoft, and Meta. The startup has also developed its own AI tools and models, such as IDEFICS, which can generate text based on short written prompts and images.
With this funding, the company plans to expand its team. As of the end of August, they had 170 employees.
In an interview, they mentioned, &#34;The competition for talent in the AI field is fierce, especially for the top scientific and engineering talents we are looking for.&#34;
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed his company's participation in this round of financing on the social network X.
They stated that the company has over 500,000 AI models and 250,000 datasets. Users can publish models and datasets and access datasets added by others for free. The company monetizes its platform by charging for features such as computational power and higher levels of customer support. Currently, they have 10,000 paying users.

Hugging Face's platform was established in 2016 and has become a popular platform for companies and individuals to share artificial intelligence models that others can use, including Google, Microsoft, and Meta platform companies.

AI Track Rising Star Hugging Face Secures Financing from Google and Amazon, Valued at $4.5 Billion