Salesforce leads the latest funding round for Hugging Face, pushing its valuation past $40 billion. Hugging Face, one of the highest-valued companies in the generative AI boom, has achieved significant success in the AI field through its open-source models and machine learning platforms. Salesforce's strategic investment in AI startups serves both defensive and offensive purposes, and this investment could indicate that Salesforce views Hugging Face as a potential acquisition target.