Hugging Face vs Scale AI: Founders, CEOs and History
Hugging Face was founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf and is led by Clément Delangue. Scale AI was founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang, Lucy Guo and is led by Francis deSouza.
Company facts
Hugging Face
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- New York, New York, United States
- Current CEO
- Clément Delangue
- Employees
- 170
Scale AI
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Francis deSouza
- Employees
- 1,200
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…
Scale AI
Alexandr Wang
Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI in 2016 and was its CEO until June 2025. He led the move from self-driving data into language-model training data and U.S. defense work, and Forbes named him the youngest self-made billionaire in 2022.
Lucy Guo
Lucy Guo co-founded Scale AI with Alexandr Wang in 2016 and led early product and design work. She left in 2018 and later founded the venture firm Backend Capital and the creator platform Passes. Lucy Guo was born in 1994. Guo left Scale AI in 2018.
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
As CTO, he built the technical infrastructure that allowed the platform to host hundreds of thousands of AI models and datasets, creating the definitive 'GitHub of machine learning'.
Source - Thomas Wolf2016–present
Chief Science Officer & Co-Founder
He oversaw the massive open-science collaborative project BigScience, which successfully trained and released the BLOOM language model to democratize AI research.
Source
Scale AI
- Alexandr Wang2016–2025
Co-Founder, former CEO and Chairman
Co-founded Scale and ran it until June 2025, when he joined Meta; remains chairman of the board.
Source - Jason Droege2025–2026
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Former chief strategy officer and Uber Eats founder who led Scale through the post-Meta-deal restructuring.
Source - Francis deSouza2026–present
Chief Executive Officer
Former Illumina CEO and Google Cloud COO, appointed CEO effective August 10, 2026 to grow the applications business.
Source
Timeline: Hugging Face and Scale AI side by side
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.
2016Scale AI
Scale AI founded
Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo founded Scale in Y Combinator's S16 batch.
2018Hugging Face
PyTorch BERT Released
Thomas Wolf open-sourced pytorch-pretrained-bert, the start of the Transformers library.
2018Scale AI
Lucy Guo departs
Co-founder Lucy Guo left the company.
2019Hugging Face
$15M Series A Led by Lux Capital
Funding to build open-source ML tools after dropping the chatbot app.
2019Scale AI
Series C and unicorn status
Founders Fund led a $100 million round valuing Scale above $1 billion.
2021Hugging Face
$40M Series B and Gradio Deal
Series B led by Addition; acquired Gradio and launched Spaces.
2021Scale AI
Series E at $7.3 billion
Scale raised $325 million at a $7.3 billion valuation.
2022Hugging Face
$100M Series C at $2B; BLOOM Released
Round led by Lux Capital; BigScience released the 176B-parameter BLOOM model.
2023Hugging Face
$235M Series D at $4.5B
Backed by Salesforce Ventures, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, and Sound Ventures.
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.
2024Scale AI
Series F at $13.8 billion
Accel led a $1 billion round with Nvidia, Amazon and Meta participating.
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.
2025Scale AI
Meta invests $14.3 billion
Meta took 49% at a valuation above $29 billion; Wang joined Meta and Jason Droege became interim CEO.
2025Scale AI
Layoffs
Scale cut 200 full-time staff and 500 contractors in July.
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.
2026Scale AI
Francis deSouza becomes CEO
The former Illumina chief took over on August 10, 2026.
Acquisitions
Hugging Face
- Pollen Robotics2025Undisclosed
- Argilla2024Undisclosed
- XetHub2024Undisclosed
- Gradio2021Undisclosed
Scale AI
- ICG Solutions2026Undisclosed
- SiaSearch2021Undisclosed
- Helia2020Undisclosed
Questions about Hugging Face vs Scale AI
Who is the CEO of Hugging Face, Inc. and Scale AI, Inc.?
Hugging Face, Inc. is led by Clément Delangue and Scale AI, Inc. is led by Francis deSouza. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Hugging Face, Inc. founded vs Scale AI, Inc.?
Both Hugging Face, Inc. and Scale AI, Inc. were founded in 2016, making them the same age.
How many employees does Hugging Face, Inc. have compared to Scale AI, Inc.?
Hugging Face, Inc. employs approximately 170 people, while Scale AI, Inc. employs approximately 1,200. Scale AI, Inc. has the larger workforce at 1,200 employees, compared to Hugging Face, Inc.'s 170. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Hugging Face, Inc. and Scale AI, Inc. headquartered?
Both Hugging Face, Inc. and Scale AI, Inc. are headquartered in United States. Their local rules and tax obligations may still differ.
Who founded Hugging Face, Inc. and Scale AI, Inc.?
Hugging Face, Inc. was founded by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf. Scale AI, Inc. was founded by Alexandr Wang, Lucy Guo.
Which company has a longer operating history — Hugging Face, Inc. or Scale AI, Inc.?
Hugging Face, Inc. has been operating for approximately 10 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Scale AI, 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 Scale AI overview