A growing number of AI startup founders are looking to sell their companies, according to the chief executive officer of Hugging Face, in a possible sign of consolidation coming to the artificial intelligence market.
Hugging Face, a leading AI startup, announced Thursday that it has agreed to pay $10 million for a small company called Argilla, its fourth acquisition to date. While Hugging Face approached the company about a tie-up, it’s also getting inbound requests from many more.
Clément Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, told Bloomberg News he’s hearing from about 10 AI startups each week that are interested in being acquired. “This year, in particular, it has increased quite a lot,” he said.
Hugging Face, which makes artificial intelligence software and hosts it for other companies, may be a magnet for businesses eager to be purchased since it has plenty of resources, Delangue said. The New York-based startup clinched $235 million in funding from investors last year, giving it a valuation of $4.5 billion.
The startup isn’t just waiting for companies to approach it, however. Hugging Face previously worked with Argilla, a company that develops software to let people collaborate to improve the datasets used to train AI that can mimic human language.
The startup’s 13 employees are joining Hugging Face, Argilla co-founder and CEO Dani Vila Suero said. Argilla will continue to operate as an independent team with the same name.
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