IT News on October 29th: According to Reuters, two sources familiar with the matter revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun inquiring about how NVIDIA's acquisition of the open-source platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion will impact competition in the field of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, antitrust enforcement officials are continuing a multi-year investigation into the actions of this chip designer.

People familiar with the matter said that recent inquiries by the Department of Justice involve NVIDIA's mergers and acquisitions, foreign investments, sales models, as well as whether the company has exerted pressure on its customers. Regarding the Hugging Face transaction, DOJ officials are particularly concerned with whether this merger will allow NVIDIA to take control of the core distribution hubs in the AI sector.

NVIDIA previously stated that this acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2027, and emphasized that Hugging Face will continue to remain open, compatible with and supporting various chips, cloud services, as well as ecological collaborations with AI suppliers.

The report mentions that any action by the U.S. Department of Justice could affect the entire chip industry and pose a challenge to NVIDIA's investment and acquisition strategies aimed at expanding its influence in the field of artificial intelligence. However, the initiation of an investigation by the government does not necessarily imply the existence of illegal activities, nor does it necessarily lead to formal litigation.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice refused to comment on any matters currently under consideration by the department, citing long-standing policy. NVIDIA also declined to comment, and representatives from Hugging Face did not respond to requests for comments.

One of the individuals familiar with the matter stated that as part of the investigation, the Department of Justice also reviewed NVIDIA's acquisition of SchedMD. This acquisition in December 2025 raised concerns among artificial intelligence experts, who were worried that it would affect their access to the open-source software SchedMD, which is used to operate supercomputers related to national security. NVIDIA has pledged to continue maintaining open access and support for this software.