US Department of Justice Reviews Nvidia's Hugging Face Acquisition and Sales Practices
The US Department of Justice is reviewing Nvidia's plan to acquire the open-source platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion. Officials are asking whether the deal would give Nvidia control over a key hub for AI distribution and harm competitors. Nvidia expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2027. The same investigation also covers Nvidia's acquisitions, investments, and sales practices, as well as whether it exchanges more AI chips for customers also buying its networking equipment and Groq processors. It has previously examined the acquisitions of SchedMD and Run:ai and the licensing agreement with Groq. France's competition authority is also investigating Nvidia, focusing on the industry's dependence on CUDA and its stakes in cloud providers such as CoreWeave.
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The original text outlines the focus of the US Department of Justice's review of the Hugging Face acquisition, as well as concerns raised by French regulators about CUDA dependence and cloud providers' shareholdings.
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The US Justice Department is looking into Nvidia's planned acquisition of open-source platform Hugging Face. According to two sources cited by Reuters , department officials are asking whether the purchase could give Nvidia control over a key hub for distributing AI and hurt its competitors. The deal is worth $12.93 billion, and Nvidia expects it to close in the first half of 2027. The company says Hugging Face will keep supporting partnerships with a range of chip, cloud, and AI providers.
At the same time, US antitrust regulators are investigating Nvidia's acquisitions, investments, sales practices, and possible pressure on customers. The probe started under Joe Biden and has continued under Donald Trump. According to the sources, officials have also looked at Nvidia's acquisitions of SchedMD and Run:ai , along with its licensing deal with Groq . They're also checking whether Nvidia offered customers more AI chips if they bought Nvidia networking gear and Groq processors too.
Nvidia faces scrutiny in Europe as well. France's competition authority is investigating the company over alleged anticompetitive business practices. The regulator is concerned about the industry's dependence on Nvidia's CUDA programming software and about Nvidia's stakes in cloud providers like CoreWeave . It pointed to possible risks such as supply restrictions, unfair contract terms, and discrimination against certain customers.