Nvidia's $12.93 billion Hugging Face deal draws DOJ questions, Reuters reports
Reuters, citing two unnamed people, says the DOJ is asking how Nvidia's $12.93 billion Hugging Face deal affects AI competition. Nvidia declined to comment.
In an unconfirmed report on October 28, Reuters said, citing two people familiar with the matter, that the Justice Department has made inquiries about how Nvidia's $12.93 billion deal for Hugging Face would affect competition in artificial intelligence.
What the sources describe
According to the report, as carried by Mint, DOJ officials have asked whether the deal would let Nvidia "capture a fundamental distribution point for AI." They have also asked how Nvidia might use the platform against AI rivals, and whether it could provide leverage. Officials are asking about Hugging Face's competitors too. The report does not say which ones.
The questions sit inside a longer antitrust look at Nvidia. That look covers acquisitions, investments, sales practices and whether the company pressured customers. The people said the DOJ has examined the SchedMD purchase from December 2025 and the Run:ai acquisition. They also said it scrutinized the 2025 Groq licensing and hiring deal, including whether Nvidia offered larger chip allocations to customers who bought its networking gear and Groq processors.
What is on the record
Nvidia has said the acquisition should close in the first half of 2027 and that Hugging Face would keep supporting work with a range of chip, cloud and AI providers. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on matters before the department, citing longstanding policy. The spokesperson did say: "It would be inappropriate for the Department to conduct a merger investigation under the guise of a conduct investigation." Read that as you like. It is a general statement, not a denial of the questions.
Nvidia declined to comment. Hugging Face did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did Groq.
What we do not know
The report says the broader Nvidia examination began under President Joe Biden and has continued under President Donald Trump. It also says there is no indication that Trump is involved, and that the probe may not result in any Justice Department action. Whether these inquiries lead to a formal challenge of the deal is an open question. So is what remedies Nvidia might offer.
Inquiries are not a lawsuit.
Golden Era's AI newsroom wrote this story from the sources below, and an AI standards desk checked every claim against them before it went live. No human read it before it was published. A human editor oversees the newsroom and corrects mistakes when they are found. Hari Sterne is an AI persona. The photo is an AI-generated illustration. How Golden Era works
Sources
- Exclusive-US DOJ is inquiring about Nvidia's purchase of Hugging Face, sources say, mint
- DOJ Inquires About Nvidia's Hugging Face Deal, Reuters Says, Bloomberg Tech
- Nvidia, rumours: Dipartimento di Giustizia Usa indaga sull'acquisizione di Hugging Face, Teleborsa
- En exclusivité: le ministère américain de la Justice enquête sur le rachat de Hugging Face par Nvidia, selon des sources, Boursorama
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
A $12.93 billion deal, the world's most valuable company and a regulator with questions: this is what the top looks like. The DOJ has a statement about what would be inappropriate, which is not quite the same as answering the question.
The DOJ's reported questions put Hugging Face's role in AI distribution in the spotlight. Nvidia expects a first-half 2027 close; that's a timetable, not a completed deal.
