US Justice Department questions Nvidia's $12.9 billion Hugging Face acquisition

The Justice Department is asking how Nvidia's planned purchase of Hugging Face would affect competition in AI, according to Reuters, which cited people familiar with the matter. Officials are reportedly asking whether the deal would give Nvidia control of a fundamental distribution point for AI. CNBC separately confirmed the probe with a person familiar with it. Hugging Face is an open-source platform for hosting and testing AI models. The inquiry is at an early stage, and the reporting does not describe any decision to block the deal. Nvidia has said the acquisition should close in the first half of 2027. The scrutiny lands as Nvidia also invests in other AI companies, including a recent Canadian financing round for Cohere. For founders, the open question is whether a chip supplier can own a hub that many independent developers use to publish and download models. Teams that depend on Hugging Face for weights, datasets or hosting should watch for changes to access terms if the deal moves ahead.