News Summary

Hugging Face, an AI development platform, has acquired Pollen Robotics, a robotics startup based in France, marking the company’s expansion into the robotics sector. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Pollen Robotics, founded in 2016 by Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet, focuses on bringing affordable humanoid robots into homes and has raised €2.5 million in funding prior to its acquisition. The acquisition highlights Hugging Face’s ambition to bridge AI software with real-world physical applications. Pollen’s humanoid robot, Reachy 2, will be commercialized by Hugging Face, allowing developers to download and suggest code improvements. This move follows a previous collaboration between Hugging Face and Pollen on ‘Le Robot’, an open-source robot designed for household tasks. Pollen’s team, including its co-founders, will join Hugging Face to bolster its robotics efforts.