---
title: "Hugging Face is reported to have been approached at a $13 billion valuation"
description: "The company was worth $4.5 billion at its last raise in 2023. It turned down $500m from Nvidia to avoid one investor dominating it. No buyer has been named and no deal has been agreed."
category: "Technology"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/technology
author: "Megan Chen"
published: 2026-08-24T19:36:21.000Z
updated: 2026-08-24T19:36:21.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/hugging-face-is-reported-to-have-been-approached-at-a-13-billion-dollar-valuatio
tags: ["hugging-face", "artificial-intelligence", "acquisitions", "open-source", "startups"]
---
# Hugging Face is reported to have been approached at a $13 billion valuation

The company was worth $4.5 billion at its last raise in 2023. It turned down $500m from Nvidia to avoid one investor dominating it. No buyer has been named and no deal has been agreed.

Hugging Face has been approached about an acquisition at a valuation of $13 billion or more, according to Business Insider, [as reported by TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/hugging-face-reportedly-in-talks-to-be-acquired-for-13b/). No deal has been agreed and the identity of any potential buyer has not been disclosed.

The company is reported to be consulting banks about evaluating bids.

## Two removes from a fact

This is a report of a report about a deal that has not happened. TechCrunch is relaying Business Insider, which is relaying unnamed sources, and the parties have not confirmed anything.

We are running it because the number is significant and the outlet is identified, but readers should hold it loosely. Acquisition talks at this stage frequently do not conclude, and being approached is not the same as negotiating.

## Why the price is interesting

Hugging Face last raised in 2023 at a $4.5 billion post-money valuation, in a round led by Salesforce Ventures with Alphabet, GV and IBM Ventures taking part. A $13 billion approach is close to triple that.

The company runs the platform where developers and researchers share, find, test and deploy AI models, along with the open source infrastructure around it. Its position is closer to a public square than a product: a great deal of the field's work passes through it without belonging to it.

Clem Delangue, the chief executive, has said the company is "close to profitability", and has framed its obligations in terms of that role: "We're building a platform for the community, and they're trusting us with sharing their data and their models."

## The refusal that explains the company

Hugging Face turned down a $500 million investment from Nvidia, which would have valued it at $7 billion, to avoid a single investor holding dominant influence.

That decision is the reason an acquisition would be a real change rather than a change of letterhead. A neutral venue matters because it is neutral. An owner with its own models, chips or cloud has an interest in what gets promoted on a platform that is currently indifferent, and the community Delangue describes is trusting an institution rather than a contract.

For context on the market, Stripe acquired OpenRouter for $7 billion. Hugging Face was also caught up in a recent security breach involving OpenAI's systems, which [we reported](/openai-pauses-frontier-training-after-its-ai-hacked-hugging-face).

## What we could not establish

We could not establish who has approached the company, whether talks are formally under way, whether the board is interested in selling, or Hugging Face's revenue. We have not read the Business Insider report directly and are relying on TechCrunch's account of it, from a single publication.

## Sources

- [Hugging Face reportedly in talks to be acquired for $13B](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/hugging-face-reportedly-in-talks-to-be-acquired-for-13b/)