U.S. Justice Department Launches Investigation Into NVIDIA's Acquisition of Hugging Face

The U.S. Justice Department has initiated an investigation into NVIDIA regarding the acquisition of Hugging Face. The latter is a platform that hosts over 3 million AI models, thus being utilized by numerous developers worldwide. The purpose of the antitrust procedure is to verify any potential obstruction to competition in the artificial intelligence market.

NVIDIA is expected to spend approximately 12.93 billion EUR to acquire Hugging Face. This financial operation is anticipated to be completed by the first half of 2027, but it will require approval from antitrust authorities. One of these authorities is the U.S. Justice Department, which shares cases with the Federal Trade Commission. The aim of the investigation is to assess the impact on the artificial intelligence market.

As is known, the company led by Jensen Huang effectively maintains a monopoly on GPUs for AI servers. Although there is competition from AMD, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, NVIDIA's chips have no rivals. The U.S. government now wants to closely examine the agreement to determine if there could be access limitations to the models hosted on Hugging Face, considered an important distribution point for developers.

No comments have been made by NVIDIA and Hugging Face. A spokesperson for the Justice Department issued a generic statement without referencing the acquisition:

"We can affirm that this Justice Department, under President Trump, will continue to prioritize the development of superintelligence for the benefit of the American people."

NVIDIA has promised to enhance Hugging Face's infrastructure and to extend access to AI models for developers and institutions worldwide. CEO Jensen Huang assured that it will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem.

The Justice Department has also initiated investigations into the agreement with Groq and the acquisition of Run:ai. Given the close ties between Jensen Huang and Donald Trump, NVIDIA is not expected to face any risks. However, these proceedings can take several years, so they may continue or be halted when a President from the opposing party takes office.

Reported by Punto Informatico.