Hugging Face, an AI firm, announced a $4.5 billion valuation in a $235 million investment round led by technology heavyweights Salesforce, Alphabet's Google, and Nvidia.

The most recent round of funding highlights the rapidly rising acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI), which has been heralded by many as the next frontier of technology and has attracted some of Silicon Valley's most powerful investors.

Following the launch of OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT, several AI startups like Microsoft-backed Inflection AI and Google-backed Runway have raised funds.

The race to the top among leading technology companies has also upped bets on Nvidia whose chip designs are being widely used in generative AI such as ChatGPT. Its shares have tripled in value so far this year and were set to hit an all-time high after Wednesday's results.

Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Qualcomm, IBM, Amazon and Ashton Kutcher-backed venture capital firm Sound Ventures also participated in Hugging Face's latest funding round.

The company, which provides an open-source platform for building applications using machine learning technologies, said it will use the funds to double down on hiring and invest in the technology. It currently has a headcount of 170.

“Thanks to the boom in demand, the company's revenue had been increasing and was on track to jump five times this year,” says Hugging Face's co-founder and CEO Clement Delangue.

“In five years, every tech company will be an AI company,” Delangue adds.