What is the Justice Department reviewing in Nvidia's Hugging Face deal?
The U.S. Justice Department is asking how Nvidia’s $12.9 billion purchase of Hugging Face would affect competition in artificial intelligence, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Officials want to know whether the deal would let Nvidia “capture a fundamental distribution point for AI,” the news agency said. They also want to know whether Nvidia could use Hugging Face to hurt rivals.
Hugging Face is a platform where developers share open AI models and data for anyone to use. Nvidia agreed to buy the company in September and has promised to keep the platform open. It expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027.
The Justice Department declined to comment, citing long-standing policy. In a statement reported by Reuters, it said it “will continue to prioritize advancement of Super Intelligence,” the White House’s term for AI. Nvidia declined to comment, and Hugging Face did not respond to requests for comment.
Is Nvidia already under other antitrust scrutiny?
The review of the Hugging Face deal runs alongside a years-long DOJ probe into Nvidia’s conduct that began under President Joe Biden. That investigation covers the chipmaker’s deals, its stakes in other companies and how it sells its chips, including whether it pressured buyers. Nvidia also faces an antitrust probe in France.
Last month, the DOJ was reported to be examining whether Nvidia structured its $20 billion deal with Groq to avoid a merger review. Rather than buying Groq outright, Nvidia licensed the startup’s technology and hired its top executives.
The scrutiny comes as Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, uses its dominance in AI chips to expand into software and AI models. The company is also in talks with Reflection AI, a maker of open AI models that Nvidia already backs, about a takeover or a larger investment.
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