DOJ questions Nvidia's $12.93 billion Hugging Face deal, Reuters reports

The US Department of Justice has made inquiries about how Nvidia's $12.93 billion purchase of Hugging Face would affect competition in AI, Reuters reported on 28 October, citing two people familiar with the matter [3]. CNBC said it confirmed the inquiry with one person [4]. Nvidia declined to comment [3][4].

What is the Justice Department asking?

The Justice Department has asked whether the deal would let Nvidia capture a fundamental distribution point for AI. According to Reuters, officials also want to know how Nvidia might use the platform to harm rivals or gain leverage, and they are asking about Hugging Face's competitors [3].

The questions sit inside a years-long examination of Nvidia's conduct that began under President Joe Biden, Reuters reports [3]. It covers acquisitions, investments, sales practices and whether Nvidia pressured customers, including deals for SchedMD, Run:ai and technology from chip startup Groq [3].

Reuters notes that government investigations are not evidence of wrongdoing and do not necessarily lead to lawsuits [3]. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the matter, citing policy, but added a statement [3].

What did Nvidia agree to buy?

Nvidia agreed on 2 September 2026 to buy Hugging Face and expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027. Its filing describes an approximately $11.9 billion purchase price plus an equity-based retention program of up to about $1.0 billion for Hugging Face employees joining Nvidia [2]. Closing depends on regulatory approvals [2].

In his announcement, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang put the price at $12,930,300,000 and said more than 18 million developers and over 200,000 companies use Hugging Face [1]. The platform hosts more than 3 million models and 500,000 datasets, according to Nvidia [1].

What has Nvidia promised to keep open?

Nvidia has pledged that its compute will not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face. In the 8-K, Nvidia says it committed to keep the platform open and to let users upload and download models and datasets of their choosing and support other silicon vendors [1][2].

Our read

Opinion: The interesting question is not chips but distribution. Hugging Face is where open models are found and downloaded, and Nvidia's openness pledges are written promises, not structural limits. Regulators asking about that chokepoint early is reasonable, and binding versions of those pledges would be the obvious remedy if they want one.

What we could not verify

• The scope of the Justice Department's questions; they are reported by Reuters from two unnamed people and confirmed by CNBC with one, and the department did not comment on the matter.
• Whether the inquiry will delay the deal or lead to any formal action; Reuters says it may not.
• Hugging Face's position; its representatives did not respond to Reuters.