Strategic Acquisition Expands Hugging Face into Physical AI

Hugging Face, the AI startup known for its leadership in open-source machine learning, has officially acquired Pollen Robotics, a French company that designs modular humanoid robots. While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, sources close to the matter estimate the transaction to be in the mid-seven figures. The acquisition is expected to significantly accelerate Hugging Face’s ambitions to bring embodied AI to the forefront of research, development, and commercialization.

Meet Pollen Robotics and Reachy 2

Founded in 2016 by Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet, Pollen Robotics has built a reputation for user-friendly, modular robots with real-world capabilities. Their flagship product, Reachy 2, is a humanoid robot designed for interaction, telepresence, and light task automation. The robot features an open-source operating system, articulated arms, expressive head movement, and full support for Python-based programming.

Reachy 2 has been used in universities, tech labs, and innovation hubs across Europe and the United States. By integrating Pollen’s platform, Hugging Face aims to extend its AI models from purely digital use into real-world robotic applications.

Financial and Business Impact

This acquisition positions Hugging Face as one of the first AI model platforms to invest directly in consumer-ready robotics. The company, which recently raised $235 million in Series D funding at a $4.5 billion valuation, is leveraging its capital to expand beyond software.

Pollen Robotics was a relatively small operation, with fewer than 20 employees and modest revenue streams from educational and research robotics. Under Hugging Face’s umbrella, Reachy 2 will benefit from global distribution, cross-platform integration, and direct support from a much larger developer community.

The Tech Edge: Open Source in Embodied AI

With this move, Hugging Face extends its open-source vision from code repositories into the real world. Developers will have access to the full stack behind Reachy 2, including CAD files, firmware, and Hugging Face models integrated for speech, vision, and control. The company expects to support plug-and-play integrations with its Transformers and Diffusers libraries.

The combination of physical robotics and advanced AI models is expected to unlock rapid experimentation in fields such as assistive tech, remote collaboration, and human-robot interaction. Hugging Face plans to roll out an SDK allowing developers to train robots directly on Hugging Face Hub datasets.

Key Personnel Leading the Transition

Hugging Face’s robotics division is now led by Remi Cadene, a senior AI engineer who previously worked on Tesla’s Optimus robot program. His experience building large-scale robotics pipelines and integrating machine learning models into real-time systems will be critical to Reachy’s evolution.

Pollen Robotics co-founders Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet will remain with the project under Hugging Face leadership, focusing on product design, developer support, and long-term research initiatives.

Industry Reaction and Future Roadmap

Analysts say this acquisition is a strong signal that AI companies are shifting toward embodied intelligence as a long-term business goal. With Hugging Face’s open-source ethos and growing ecosystem of contributors, the company is well positioned to challenge proprietary robotics solutions and attract academic, enterprise, and hobbyist interest.

In the next 12 months, Hugging Face is expected to launch a developer conference focused on AI-powered robotics, release new modules for gesture and speech understanding, and offer a commercial Reachy 2.5 edition targeted at startup labs and research centers.