The U.S. Department of Justice opened an inquiry into the purchase following concerns about its market impact on competing artificial intelligence firms. When announced in September, the platform supported over 18 million users and 200,000 businesses sharing more than 3 million AI models and 500,000 datasets. The platform also made recent headlines after OpenAI testing agents attacked it, an event highlighted in the Netflix documentary "AI Gone Rogue." Nvidia has claimed the takeover will instead expand global AI access for developers and research institutions.
Key points
Regulatory authorities are intensifying antitrust oversight of major consolidation moves…: Regulatory authorities are intensifying antitrust oversight of major consolidation moves across the artificial intelligence sector.
Nvidia is facing multiple federal antitrust reviews as its previous twenty billion dollar…: Nvidia is facing multiple federal antitrust reviews as its previous twenty billion dollar Groq deal also drew scrutiny.
The platform functions as a critical AI repository comparable to Microsoft's seven point…: The platform functions as a critical AI repository comparable to Microsoft's seven point five billion dollar GitHub takeover.
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Nvidia is facing questions from the U.S. Department of Justice concerning its acquisition of Hugging Face, an open-source platform for hosting and testing AI models, and how that deal may impact competitors in the field.
CNBC has confirmed the probe with a source familiar with it. Reuters first reported the DOJ's inquiry on Wednesday.
Nvidia announced its nearly $13 billion acquisition of Hugging Face in September, and at the time, CEO Jensen Huang wrote that the deal would help "expand access to AI for developers and institutions worldwide."
Hugging Face already had massive adoption. At the time of the deal, Nvidia said in a press statement that more than 18 million people and more than 200,000 companies reportedly used Hugging Face to share at least 3 million models and 500,000 datasets.
Hugging Face also sells infrastructure and collaboration tools to organizations working with closed, proprietary AI including chip companies.
The Hugging Face acquisition marked Nvidia's second-biggest purchase, after it paid $20 billion for Groq assets at the end of last year, a deal that has also attracted DOJ scrutiny. The…
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