Nvidia is reportedly facing questions from the United States Department of Justice over whether its purchase of Hugging Face will have an impact on competition in the growing AI space. Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face in September, paying almost $13 billion. Hugging Face offers an open-source platform for the hosting and testing of new AI models, and that appears to be behind the DOJ's concerns. Reuters reports that the department has made inquiries about how the Hugging Face deal could change the landscape for Nvidia's competitors. The move could be seen as a way for Nvidia to lock in a key distribution channel for its own products. Hugging Face also sells AI infrastructure.
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This isn't the first time that Nvidia has found itself in the DOJ's crosshairs. S. government, stretching back to the Biden administration. S. president reportedly tempted to break the company up — despite being unfamiliar with what it was . More recently, Nvidia and other AI hardware makers found themselves under export controls . Nvidia's powerful AI-focused hardware can only be sold to approved entities, while it cannot ship to countries including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
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