US DOJ Questions NVIDIA's $12.9 Billion Hugging Face Acquisition
The Justice Department is asking whether NVIDIA's purchase of Hugging Face would hand it control over a fundamental AI distribution point, as part of a broader antitrust scrutiny of the chipmaker's acquisition spree.
The US Department of Justice is inquiring about NVIDIA's $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, first reported by Reuters on October 28 and independently confirmed by CNBC. Regulators want to know whether owning the platform would give NVIDIA control over what sources describe as a fundamental distribution point for AI, and whether it could be used to disadvantage competing chip makers and alternative model repositories. The deal was announced in early September 2026, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.
The inquiry sits inside a wider antitrust investigation of NVIDIA that spans its purchases of Run:ai and SchedMD as well as the structure of its Groq licensing agreements, and has continued across successive administrations. At this stage it remains an inquiry — no allegations or charges have been filed. Hugging Face serves as the de facto distribution channel for open-weight models, so even the prospect of scrutiny flags concentration over that channel as a strategic risk for enterprises building on open-source weights.