On October 28, 2026, Reuters reported that U.S. Department of Justice officials had asked about the competitive effects of Nvidia’s proposed acquisition of Hugging Face. According to two people familiar with the matter, officials questioned whether Nvidia could gain leverage over an important AI distribution point, harm rivals or use the deal to strengthen its position. They were also asking about Hugging Face’s competitors.
What the reported questions focus on
Hugging Face is an AI model and developer platform. The questions Reuters described concern the influence Nvidia could gain if it owned a service used to distribute AI models and related tools, and what that might mean for competing companies.
Reuters placed the acquisition-related inquiries within broader scrutiny of Nvidia’s acquisitions, investments and sales practices, including possible pressure on customers. The report does not give a date for when officials made the inquiries.
The acquisition remains proposed
Reuters reported a transaction value of $12.93 billion and said Nvidia expected the deal to close in the first half of 2027. The acquisition had not been completed in the account. Nvidia declined to comment to Reuters, and Hugging Face representatives did not respond to the outlet’s request.
NeoTeo previously covered Nvidia’s agreement to acquire Hugging Face. This follow-up concerns the later reported questions from Justice Department officials.
What Thomas Wolf said before the inquiry reports
In a Bloomberg Tech interview published September 3, 2026, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf said the goal was to keep the platform open, independent and compatible with different computing providers. He also said the company’s three co-founders would stay, with a retention commitment of at least six years. These were Wolf’s statements about the proposed deal, made before the later inquiry reports.
