Startup News: AI startup Hugging Face is teaming up with Nvidia

Hugging Face bills itself as “the collaboration platform for the machine-learning community.’’ And that platform has been enhanced, thanks to a new partnership with Nvidia, the $1 trillion market-cap chip company that has emerged as a global leader in AI computer processing.

The companies announced in a joint press release last week that their partnership will give software developers using the Hugging Face platform access to DGX Cloud, Nvidia’s all-inclusive AI “supercomputer” in the cloud. According to the release, this will help foster industry adoption of generative AI using large language models that are custom-tailored with business data for industry-specific applications, including intelligent chatbots, search, and summarization.

“Our collaboration will bring Nvidia’s most advanced AI supercomputing to Hugging Face to enable companies to take their AI destiny into their own hands with open source and with speed they need to contribute to what’s coming next,” said Clément Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face in the press release announcing the partnership.

Founded in 2016, New York-based Hugging Face develops AI algorithms and products for developers in the machine learning space. As of August 2022, the company’s valuation was $2 billion.

Scale AI makes deal with online learning Co. Chegg

Scale AI serves a vital niche in the artificial intelligence universe. The San Francisco-based company is essentially a data platform for AI, helping machine learning teams generate high-quality training and validation data for the development of AI applications.

And last week, the company signed up a new client, Chegg, a publicly-traded company that provides online tutoring and other student-related services. Scale AI will reportedly use Chegg’s data to create new learning experiences for specific students, according to a recent article in Yahoo Finance.

In a press release last week, Santa Clara, California-based Chegg said that Scale AI will help develop proprietary large language models to provide a generative experience through Chegg’s personalized learning assistant. “Students can expect to see a much simpler, conversational user interface, personalized learning, more in-depth content, and the ability to transform our content automatically into innovative study tools, such as practice tests, study guides, and flash cards.”

Scale AI was founded in 2016 and its last known valuation, as of April 2021, was $7.3 billion.

Neuralink gets $280M in funding led by Peter Thiel’s VC firm

Neuralink, the private company that is developing brain-implanted devices to cure a variety of neurological diseases, just got a fresh vote of confidence.

In a brief announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Neuralink said that it was “happy to announce” the $280 million Series D round led by Founders Fund, the VC vehicle established by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel.

In May, Neuralink, which was co-founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, announced that it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its first human clinical trial. Founded in 2016, the Fremont, California-based company now has a valuation of $3.45 billion as of August 2023, based on the latest funding round.