DOJ asks if Nvidia's Hugging Face buy would hand it the open-model keys

Reuters reported October 28 that Justice Department antitrust officials are asking whether Nvidia's planned $12.9 billion purchase of Hugging Face would let the chipmaker “capture a fundamental distribution point for AI” — the hub where developers host, share and test open models, code and datasets.

Enforcers are also weighing whether Nvidia could use the platform as leverage in commercial negotiations, disadvantage rival chipmakers, or disadvantage alternative model repositories. The questions sit inside a broader conduct probe that began under the Biden administration and continues under Trump, covering Nvidia's acquisitions, sales practices, chip allocations tied to networking gear, and its $20 billion Groq licensing-and-hiring arrangement.

Nvidia says Hugging Face will stay open to third-party processors, frameworks and cloud services, with the deal expected to close in the first half of 2027. The Justice Department and Nvidia declined to comment and Hugging Face did not respond; an inquiry is not evidence of wrongdoing and may not lead to a case.