Multi-billion dollar AI community startup Hugging Face on Thursday announced its fourth acquisition to date, buying a smaller AI collaboration platform called Argilla for $10 million.
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delange says he is now getting acquisition requests from even more startups — at least 10 a week.
“We've seen a significant increase, especially this year,” he told Bloomberg.
Clément Delange, CEO of Hugging Face. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Hugging Face allows developers to openly share and test AI models that anyone can use, and has partnered with companies like Google and Microsoft. The company claims to have more than 1 million AI models, datasets, and apps on its platform.
Hugging Face is now valued at $4.5 billion after raising $235 million in a funding round in August from Amazon, Nvidia, Intel and other major tech companies.
According to Bloomberg, DeLange's comments about the rise of AI startups looking to acquire could signal that the industry is consolidating, or entering a phase where competitors may start merging.
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Big tech companies have been quietly acquiring AI startups lately. According to a February report from portfolio management firm Stocklytics, Apple has acquired the most AI startups of any company in the industry, acquiring 32 companies last year and at least one this year.
According to the report, Google has acquired 21 AI startups, while Meta has acquired 18.
AI stood out last year as one of the best-performing industries in terms of the growth of unicorns, or companies valued at $1 billion.
A February Morningstar report said more than four out of 10 startups that will become unicorns in 2023 will be focused on AI and machine learning.
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