DOJ asked about NVIDIA’s proposed Hugging Face acquisition, Reuters reports

Reuters reported on October 28, 2026, that the U.S. Department of Justice had made inquiries about whether NVIDIA’s proposed acquisition of Hugging Face could affect competition in AI. Citing two people familiar with the matter, Reuters said officials asked whether NVIDIA could gain leverage over an important channel for distributing AI models and tools, potentially harming rivals, and also asked about Hugging Face’s competitors.

What the DOJ reportedly asked about

Hugging Face gives developers a place to discover models, compare options and find tools to run them. The reported questions focus on whether NVIDIA’s ownership of that distribution platform could affect competitors. NeoTeo previously covered the proposed $12.93 billion acquisition in its account of the NVIDIA–Hugging Face deal.

The acquisition questions are separate from broader scrutiny

Reuters described the Hugging Face questions separately from a years-long DOJ examination of NVIDIA’s broader business conduct, including acquisitions, investments, sales practices and possible pressure on customers. In that broader inquiry, officials reportedly examined whether customers received larger allocations of AI chips when they also bought networking equipment and Groq processors.

These are distinct lines of inquiry: one concerns the possible competitive effects of the proposed acquisition, while the other concerns NVIDIA’s business practices. Reuters reported questions in both areas.

How platform choices could shape developers’ decisions

Stephanie Walter of HyperFRAME Research has argued that defaults, recommendations and engineering attention on a platform could influence developers’ choices even without blocking competing hardware. That analysis describes a possible way platform ownership could matter: access may remain available while the ease of finding and using alternatives changes.

NVIDIA has said Hugging Face would continue supporting a range of chip, cloud and AI providers. NVIDIA told Reuters it expected the proposed acquisition to close in the first half of 2027.