Hugging Face vs OpenAI: Founders, CEOs and History
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf and is led by Clément Delangue. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman and is led by Sam Altman.
Company facts
Hugging Face
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- New York, New York, United States
- Current CEO
- Clément Delangue
OpenAI
- Founded
- 2015
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Sam Altman
- Employees
- 4,500
Founders
Hugging Face
Clément Delangue
Clément Delangue is co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face. He led the company from its 2016 teen chatbot app to the open-source pivot and became one of the most visible advocates for open AI, including testimony to the US House Science Committee in June 2023.
Julien Chaumond
Julien Chaumond is co-founder and CTO of Hugging Face. He leads the engineering behind the Hub, the platform that stores and serves millions of model repositories and billions of downloads, and its developer-facing products.
Thomas Wolf
Thomas Wolf is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Hugging Face. He wrote the 2018 PyTorch port of BERT that became the Transformers library, co-led the BigScience workshop that produced the 176B-parameter BLOOM model in 2022, and oversees the company's op…
OpenAI
Sam Altman
Sam Altman co-chaired OpenAI at its 2015 founding and became CEO in 2019. He negotiated the Microsoft partnership, oversaw the ChatGPT launch in 2022, survived the board's brief attempt to remove him in November 2023, and led the October 2025 recapitalization…
Elon Musk
Elon Musk was an early co-chair and funder of OpenAI and left its board in February 2018. He later founded rival xAI in 2023 and sued OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024, arguing the company abandoned its nonprofit mission.
Greg Brockman
Greg Brockman left his role as Stripe CTO to co-found OpenAI in 2015 and serves as president.
Ilya Sutskever
Ilya Sutskever was OpenAI's chief scientist from 2015 to May 2024, overseeing work behind the GPT series and ChatGPT. He voted to remove Sam Altman in November 2023, then said he regretted it. After leaving OpenAI he co-founded Safe Superintelligence Inc.
CEOs and their tenures
Hugging Face
- Clément Delangue2016–present
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Led the 2018-2019 pivot from chatbot to open-source ML, raised about $400M through the 2023 Series D, and negotiated the $12.93B Nvidia acquisition agreed in September 2026.
Source - Julien Chaumond2016–present
Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder
Leads engineering for the Hub and its storage and serving infrastructure.
Source - Thomas Wolf2016–present
Chief Science Officer & Co-Founder
Created the Transformers library and co-led the BigScience BLOOM project; oversees open science research.
Source
OpenAI
- Greg Brockman2015–present
President and Co-founder
Former Stripe CTO; returned from a 2024 sabbatical and remains president.
Source - Mira Murati2018–2024
Chief Technology Officer and interim CEO (former)
Served as interim CEO for two days in November 2023; left OpenAI in 2024.
Source - Sam Altman2019–present
Chief Executive Officer
Co-founder and CEO who turned OpenAI from a research lab into a consumer and enterprise platform; briefly removed by the board in November 2023 and reinstated days later.
Source - Fidji Simo2025–2026
CEO of Applications (former)
Former Instacart CEO who ran ChatGPT and other applications; stepped down from the full-time role in July 2026 for health reasons and stayed on as an adviser.
Source - Vijaye Raji2025–present
CTO of Applications
Statsig founder who joined via the 2025 acquisition to head product engineering for ChatGPT and Codex.
Source
Timeline: Hugging Face and OpenAI side by side
2015OpenAI
OpenAI founded as a nonprofit
OpenAI launched in December 2015 as a nonprofit AI research lab.
2016Hugging Face
Hugging Face Founded
Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf launched a chatbot app for teenagers, backed by a $1.2M seed round.
2018Hugging Face
PyTorch BERT Released
Thomas Wolf open-sourced pytorch-pretrained-bert, the start of the Transformers library.
2019Hugging Face
$15M Series A Led by Lux Capital
Funding to build open-source ML tools after dropping the chatbot app.
2019OpenAI
Capped-profit entity and Microsoft deal
OpenAI created a capped-profit subsidiary and received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft.
2021Hugging Face
$40M Series B and Gradio Deal
Series B led by Addition; acquired Gradio and launched Spaces.
2022Hugging Face
$100M Series C at $2B; BLOOM Released
Round led by Lux Capital; BigScience released the 176B-parameter BLOOM model.
2022OpenAI
ChatGPT launch
ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022 and reached 100 million users faster than any prior consumer app.
2023Hugging Face
$235M Series D at $4.5B
Backed by Salesforce Ventures, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, and Sound Ventures.
2023OpenAI
Board crisis
The nonprofit board removed Sam Altman in November 2023; he returned as CEO within days and the board was rebuilt.
2024Hugging Face
1 Million Models; Argilla and XetHub Acquired
The Hub passed 1 million public models; Hugging Face bought Argilla and XetHub. A Spaces secrets breach was disclosed in June.
2025Hugging Face
Pollen Robotics Acquisition and Reachy Mini
Bought Pollen Robotics in April and launched the Reachy Mini robot in July; users, models, and datasets nearly doubled during the year.
2025OpenAI
Acquired Jony Ive's io
OpenAI agreed to buy hardware startup io for just under $6.5 billion in an all-equity deal.
2025OpenAI
Recapitalization into OpenAI Group PBC
In October 2025 the for-profit became a public benefit corporation controlled by the OpenAI Foundation; Microsoft received about 27%.
2026Hugging Face
3 Million Models; Nvidia Agrees to Buy for $12.93B
The Hub passed 3 million models in August; Nvidia signed a definitive acquisition agreement on September 2, expected to close in H1 2027.
2026OpenAI
$122B funding round
OpenAI closed $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation on March 31, 2026.
2026OpenAI
Run rate nears $70B
Axios reported in September 2026 that annual recurring revenue was nearing $70 billion.
Acquisitions
Hugging Face
- Pollen Robotics2025Undisclosed
- Argilla2024Undisclosed
- XetHub2024Undisclosed
- Gradio2021Undisclosed
OpenAI
- io Products2025$6.5B
- Statsig2025$1.1B
- Rockset2024Undisclosed
- Global Illumination2023Undisclosed
Questions about Hugging Face vs OpenAI
Who is the CEO of Hugging Face, Inc. and OpenAI?
Hugging Face, Inc. is led by Clément Delangue and OpenAI is led by Sam Altman. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Hugging Face, Inc. founded vs OpenAI?
OpenAI was founded in 2015 — 1 year before Hugging Face, Inc., which was founded in 2016. OpenAI's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Hugging Face, Inc..
How many employees does Hugging Face, Inc. have compared to OpenAI?
OpenAI employs approximately 4,500 people. A verified employee count for Hugging Face, Inc. is not currently available.
Where are Hugging Face, Inc. and OpenAI headquartered?
Both Hugging Face, Inc. and OpenAI are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Hugging Face, Inc. and OpenAI?
Hugging Face, Inc. was founded by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf. OpenAI was founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever.
Which company has a longer operating history — Hugging Face, Inc. or OpenAI?
OpenAI has been operating for approximately 11 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Hugging Face, Inc. has been in operation for around 10 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Hugging Face vs OpenAI overview