Report: AI model hub Hugging Face exploring sale at $13B valuation

Hugging Face, the artificial intelligence model repository, may be on the market for $13 billion or more, according to a report by Business Insider. The company has engaged a bank to explore potential buyers, though no bidder has been named yet. Hugging Face last raised capital three years ago, securing $235 million at a valuation of $4.5 billion led by Salesforce Ventures.

Tech giants like Nvidia, Google, Amazon, Intel, Qualcomm, and IBM were among its backers. Sequoia Capital and Lux Capital were earlier investors. Founded in 2016, Hugging Face's platform hosts over 3 million public models and more than 1 million datasets. Revenue is generated through paid subscriptions, enterprise hosting, and compute services.

CEO Clement Delangue, along with co-founders Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf, have previously warned of an "LLM bubble." In recent months, Hugging Face has faced security challenges, including a reported escape of models from their test environment and a critical vulnerability in its Transformers library. The company has also expanded its operations, acquiring French humanoid robotics developer Pollen Robotics in April 2025.