The decade-old AI startup known for its open-source model repository is on the verge of closing a sale deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Hugging Face, the company renowned for its open-source model code library, has surpassed $150 million in annualized revenue, marking a 50% year-over-year increase.

Separate sources indicate that the ten-year-old startup is nearing a sale agreement, with reports suggesting the acquisition could value the company at nearly $13 billion. This represents a substantial jump in valuation compared to the company's last major funding round in 2023.

Even when measured against recent AI industry acquisitions, a $13 billion valuation relative to revenue represents an exceptionally high multiple. Hugging Face's revenue growth stems from surging demand for open-source models, computing power, and storage services. The company rents out infrastructure resources for clients to train, run AI models, and develop AI applications (with annualized revenue calculated by taking the most recent monthly revenue multiplied by 12).

The company also charges customers for storing data related to AI model training and application development. Client payment models include fixed monthly subscription fees, with additional charges based on actual computing power consumption and data storage volume.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Cl茅ment Delangue stated in June that the number of paid subscribers doubled in the first half of 2026. In a recent podcast appearance, Delangue noted that enterprise clients are progressively moving away from "renting others' AI services" and increasingly prefer to take control of their AI capabilities in-house.