Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue has said that large companies are moving away from the rented AI model. Instead of paying for every API call to external providers, they are choosing open source models to run in-house. Hugging Face is now used by about half of the Fortune 500. This signal matters for Italian SMEs, too.
And it's not just a big-corporation story. The same logic applies to mid-market companies that want control over their data, predictable costs and independence from vendors. So the choice between proprietary APIs and on-premise open source models becomes a strategic decision, not just a technical one. It comes down to data governance, budget and in-house skills.
At SHM Studio, we are watching this transition closely. We help our clients navigate the available options and assess which approach to AI is most sustainable over the medium term. This article looks at the key numbers, the operational implications and the questions every marketing or digital lead should be asking today.
The context: Hugging Face as a barometer of the AI market
Over the past few years, Hugging Face has become the global reference point for anyone building and distributing open source AI models. The comparison with GitHub is no accident. Just as GitHub centralized code sharing, Hugging Face has done the same for models, datasets and machine learning pipelines.
According to CEO Clem Delangue in a recent TechCrunch interview, about half of the Fortune 500 now uses the platform. That figure is significant. It shows that adopting open source AI is no longer a niche or experimental choice.
The market is sending a clear signal: structured organizations prefer to control their own models. Unlike just a few years ago, today the model
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