HuggingFace Announces Free Shared GPUs to Boost AI Innovation

TapTechNews May 16th news, the world's largest open source AI community HuggingFace (referred to as 抱抱脸) recently announced that it will provide $10 million worth of free shared GPUs to help developers create new AI technologies.

Specifically, the purpose of HuggingFace's move this time is to help small developers, researchers, and startups to compete against large AI companies and avoid the centralization of AI progress.

HuggingFace CEO Clem Delangue stated in an interview with The Verge that he feels lucky to be able to invest in the community. This investment is possible because the company is already profitable, or is on its way to profitability. Recently, HuggingFace also raised $235 million, with the company's valuation reaching $4.5 billion.

Clem Delangue expressed concerns about the current competition between AI startups and tech giants, as the code for products like GPT-4 is still being kept internally by large companies. These companies not only have the economic strength to maintain the proprietary nature of their models, but they can also leverage billions of dollars in computing resources to combine their achievements and stay ahead of competitors, making it difficult for startups to keep up.

He mentioned that HuggingFace aims to make advanced AI technology accessible to everyone, not just enjoyed by tech giants. The company's goal is to create a level playing field by donating these shared GPUs to the community through a new initiative called ZeroGPU. Getting enough GPUs from major cloud providers is very difficult, and the way to get GPUs, the long-term commitment to a large number of GPUs, creates a high barrier to entry.