U.S. Department of Justice Investigates NVIDIA's Acquisition of Hugging Face

TechFlow reports that on October 29, according to Yonhap News Agency citing Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into NVIDIA's acquisition of Hugging Face, focusing on whether the $12.9 billion deal would allow NVIDIA to control core AI distribution nodes, and whether NVIDIA could leverage the open-source AI model sharing platform to harm competitors or use it as a bargaining chip.

The investigation also covers NVIDIA's acquisition, investment, and sales practices and whether it pressured customers, including whether NVIDIA allocated more AI chips to customers purchasing network equipment and Groq processors after licensing Groq's technology and recruiting its core engineers, as well as its December 2025 acquisitions of SchedMD and Run:ai. The report states that the investigation does not indicate evidence of wrongdoing nor necessarily lead to litigation; NVIDIA stated that Hugging Face will remain open, and the deal is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.