---
title: "Safetensors is Joining the PyTorch Foundation"
description: "Safetensors has joined the PyTorch Foundation as a foundation-hosted project under the Linux Foundation, alongside DeepSpeed, Helion, Ray, vLLM, and PyTorch. It began as a Hugging Face project addressing the risk of arbitrary code execution in pickle-based model-weight formats. Its format stores tensor metadata in a JSON header capped at 100MB, followed by raw tensor data, and supports zero-copy mapping and lazy loading. The move places the trademark, repository, and governance with the Linux Foundation, while Luc and Daniel remain on the Technical Steering Committee and lead day-to-day work. Existing users get the same format, APIs, and Hub integration without breaking changes, while contributors gain a documented maintainer path; planned work includes PyTorch core serialization, accelerator-aware loading, parallel loading, and quantization support."
---

# Safetensors is Joining the PyTorch Foundation

[Hugging Face](https://yomu.fyi/company/hugging-face) · Luc Georges, Lysandre · Apr 8, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

Safetensors has joined the PyTorch Foundation as a foundation-hosted project under the Linux Foundation, alongside DeepSpeed, Helion, Ray, vLLM, and PyTorch. It began as a Hugging Face project addressing the risk of arbitrary code execution in pickle-based model-weight formats. Its format stores tensor metadata in a JSON header capped at 100MB, followed by raw tensor data, and supports zero-copy mapping and lazy loading. The move places the trademark, repository, and governance with the Linux Foundation, while Luc and Daniel remain on the Technical Steering Committee and lead day-to-day work. Existing users get the same format, APIs, and Hub integration without breaking changes, while contributors gain a documented maintainer path; planned work includes PyTorch core serialization, accelerator-aware loading, parallel loading, and quantization support.

## Context

Safetensors was created to provide a way to store and share model weights without the arbitrary-code execution risk associated with pickle-based formats. As open model sharing became central to the ML community and adoption expanded, the project sought governance that represented the broader community rather than a single company.

## Approach / What changed

Safetensors is moving its trademark, repository, and governance under the Linux Foundation through the PyTorch Foundation while retaining its existing format, APIs, Hub integration, and day-to-day technical leadership. The project also plans collaboration on PyTorch serialization, device-aware loading, Tensor Parallel and Pipeline Parallel APIs, and support for evolving quantization formats.

## Takeaways

- The format combines a JSON metadata header limited to 100MB with raw tensor data, enabling zero-copy loading and lazy access to individual weights.
- The Linux Foundation now holds Safetensors' trademark, repository, and governance; Luc and Daniel remain on the Technical Steering Committee and continue leading the project day to day.
- The transition introduces no breaking changes for users, while contributors receive a formally documented path to maintainer status.

**Tags:** [Machine Learning](https://yomu.fyi/topic/machine-learning), [Open Source](https://yomu.fyi/topic/open-source), [Performance](https://yomu.fyi/topic/performance)

- Source: [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/blog/safetensors-joins-pytorch-foundation)
- Source URL: https://huggingface.co/blog/safetensors-joins-pytorch-foundation
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-08-29T01:47:27.243Z

[Read original post](https://huggingface.co/blog/safetensors-joins-pytorch-foundation)