Reuters reported on Oct. 28, 2026, citing two people familiar with the matter, that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had asked how Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of Hugging Face could affect competition in AI. The reported questions included whether the deal could put a key AI distribution point under Nvidia’s control, and whether Nvidia might use the platform to harm rivals or gain leverage.
What the reported questions focus on
The inquiry described by Reuters centers on the role Hugging Face could play as a route through which AI models reach developers. Reuters attributed the questions about control, rivals and leverage to its two sources. It also placed them within broader scrutiny of Nvidia’s sales practices, investments and other transactions.
Hugging Face’s reach, according to Nvidia
In its Sept. 3, 2026 announcement, Nvidia said Hugging Face had more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators, over 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications. Nvidia also said more than 200,000 companies used the platform. Those company-reported figures give a sense of the platform’s scale in the context of the reported questions about AI distribution.
Nvidia’s stated commitments on platform access
Nvidia said developers would be able to choose their models, frameworks, cloud and inference providers, and computing platforms. It also said Nvidia computing would not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face. These were commitments in Nvidia’s acquisition announcement, not a description of how the platform would operate after a closing. Nvidia’s announcement sets out those terms.
Deal value and expected closing window
Nvidia announced on Sept. 3, 2026, that it had agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12,930,300,000. NeoTeo’s earlier report on the proposed acquisition covers the original announcement. Reuters reported that Nvidia expected the deal to close in the first half of 2027.
