According to Clement Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, an increasing number of AI startup founders are looking to sell their companies. Delangue mentioned that he receives inquiries from approximately 10 founders each week who are interested in being acquired.
It is reported that Hugging Face recently announced the acquisition of Argilla for $10 million. This marks the fourth acquisition for the New York-based startup. Last year, Hugging Face raised $235 million from investors, boosting its valuation to $4.5 billion. Argilla's software allows users to collaborate in improving datasets to better train AI models. Through this acquisition, Argilla's 13 employees will become part of the Hugging Face team, but the company will continue to operate independently under the Argilla name.
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Since its inception, Hugging Face has been actively expanding in the AI field. This acquisition of Argilla not only strengthens its capabilities in dataset management and improvement but also demonstrates its strategic vision in acquiring AI startups. Delangue pointed out that with the rapid development of AI technology, startups are facing increasingly fierce competition, and many founders are choosing to sell their companies to seek new development opportunities.
The addition of Argilla will bring Hugging Face more experience and technical support in collaborative dataset management, further enhancing its strength in AI training data. Hugging Face stated that it will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities to expand its technology and market influence, providing customers with higher quality AI solutions.
This acquisition reflects the current merger and acquisition boom in the AI industry and also foreshadows that more startups will drive further development and application of AI technology with the support of larger companies.