According to a report from Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, department officials have asked whether the Hugging Face deal would allow Nvidia to control a key distribution point for AI models and tools.
- The questioning adds to the years-long probe by antitrust regulators on Nvidia’s conduct, which kicked off under former President Joe Biden, the report said.
- The DOJ’s recent line of questioning covers the company’s acquisitions, investments, sales practices, and whether it has pressured customers, sources told Reuters.
- Nvidia announced in early September that it had agreed to buy Hugging Face for approximately $12.93 billion; the deal is expected to close in early 2027.
Shares of Nvidia Corp (NVDA) slipped 1% on Wednesday following reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has inquired about how its planned acquisition of Hugging Face could affect competition in artificial intelligence.
According to a report from Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, department officials have asked whether the Hugging Face deal would allow Nvidia to control a key distribution point for AI models and tools.
The questioning adds to the years-long probe by antitrust regulators on Nvidia’s conduct, which kicked off under former President Joe Biden, the report said. The probe is reportedly continuing with no indication that current President Donald Trump has any involvement. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a relationship with Trump and recently joined the President on his diplomatic trip to China.
The DOJ’s recent line of questioning covers the company’s acquisitions, investments, sales practices, and whether it has pressured customers, sources told Reuters.
Nvidia’s Recent Deals Under Radar
As part of the probe, the DOJ has reportedly examined Nvidia’s other acquisition deals, including the December 2025 deal to buy SchedMD, sources told Reuters. The department has also scrutinized Nvidia’s conduct following other transactions, including its licensing deal with chip startup Groq and its acquisition of Run.ai, the report added.
Nvidia announced in early September that it had agreed to buy Hugging Face for approximately $12.93 billion. The transaction includes roughly $11.9 billion payable to Hugging Face’s investors and an equity-based retention program of up to about $1 billion for employees who join Nvidia.
Hugging Face operates a widely used platform that hosts millions of open-source AI models, datasets, and applications, serving millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of companies. It is often described as a central hub for open AI development. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has pledged that the platform will remain open to models, frameworks, clouds, and computing platforms from across the industry, and that Nvidia’s own chips will not be required to use it. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
How Did NVDA Retail Traders React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NVDA stock stayed within the ‘bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume stayed at ‘normal’ levels.
A Stocktwits user expressed concerns about the DOJ probe.
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NVDA stock has gained 15% year-to-date.
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