Nvidia's Hugging Face deal after Jensen Huang's exit: $12.9 billion, DOJ questions, 2027 close

The biggest open-source platform in AI is being bought by a company whose chief executive just resigned. Nvidia agreed on September 3, 2026 to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion. Nvidia's newsroom lists, under November 12, that Jensen Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. The deal has not closed, and the Justice Department is asking questions.

The deal as announced

Euronews reported the purchase price as $12.93 billion, Nvidia's second-largest acquisition after the roughly $20 billion purchase of Groq assets in December 2025. Nvidia already held a minority stake, having invested $235 million in Hugging Face's 2023 round, when it was valued at $4.5 billion, according to Euronews. The new price is close to three times that valuation.

At the time, Huang wrote in a blog post: "NVIDIA compute will not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face." Hugging Face chief executive Clement Delangue told CNBC that open-source AI "needed more resources, more scale, more visibility." Hugging Face has more than 18 million users and more than 200,000 enterprise customers, according to figures from Nvidia's announcement as reported by Channel Insider. TechCrunch reports the deal is scheduled to close in the first half of 2027.

What changed this week

Nvidia's newsroom archive lists two relevant items. On November 10, the independent board members hired former acting U.S. attorney Joon H. Kim and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct what the teaser calls a "thorough and independent investigation." It then announced that Huang "has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately." Our report on the resignation covers the leadership picture, and our explainer on the Nvidia put covers what it means for companies Nvidia backs.

Those reasons remain allegations. The Neuron's digest, citing CNN, says Huang stepped down amid reports about extramarital relationships and allegations involving a woman suspected by U.S. intelligence of passing information to China. It adds that Nvidia has said it found no evidence that corporate or national security secrets were compromised. Semafor reports The Information found Huang's relationship with a Megaspeed executive may have helped funnel at least $7.5 billion of Nvidia chips to China. We have not seen the underlying document, and the claim should be read as a report.

Delangue's reaction

On November 12, Delangue called the departure a "really sad day" in a post on X, and wrote: "This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened." He added that "we'll keep fighting for open-source AI, harder than ever." TechCrunch noted that Nvidia and Hugging Face did not respond to requests about the deal's status or whether Delangue had spoken with interim chief executive Colette Kress.

TechCrunch also lists Huang's public record on openness: a CES keynote promoting open-source AI in January, a July 24, 2026 post sharing a policy letter from 25 companies urging the government not to over-restrict open-weight models, a $6 billion Poolside deal in August and expanded Nemotron open-weight models in October. The point for Hugging Face is that its protector was personal. The pledge in September came from one executive.

The antitrust questions

According to Reuters, as relayed by Channel Insider, Justice Department officials are asking whether the deal could disadvantage competing chipmakers and AI providers, and whether Nvidia could use ownership of Hugging Face to strengthen its position. They have also sought information about Hugging Face's competitors. The broader review covers Nvidia's SchedMD and Run:ai acquisitions and the Groq arrangement, including whether customers got preferential chip access when also buying networking equipment and Groq processors. It began under the Biden administration and has continued under Trump.

A Justice Department spokesperson said: "This DOJ under President Trump's leadership will continue to prioritize advancement of Super Intelligence." The inquiry does not establish wrongdoing, and the department could end it without action. Nvidia has pledged to keep access to SchedMD's open-source software and says Hugging Face will keep supporting different chipmakers, clouds and AI companies.

What it means for open models

Hugging Face is where open-weight models are hosted, downloaded and compared. Developers who build on it depend on neutrality, and a chip supplier owning the platform creates an obvious conflict, which is exactly what regulators are probing. Semafor also reports that Chinese developers' chip access already depends on U.S. restrictions, and that tighter scrutiny of Nvidia could limit supply to Chinese firms. Hugging Face hosts models from all of them.

The timeline in short

• September 2 to 3, 2026: Nvidia and Hugging Face agree the deal, announced September 3 at $12.93 billion.
• October 2026: Reuters reports the Justice Department is asking questions about competition effects, according to TechCrunch and Channel Insider.
• November 10, 2026: Nvidia's independent board members hire Joon H. Kim and Wachtell to investigate.
• November 12, 2026: Nvidia's newsroom lists Huang's resignation, and Delangue responds on X.
• First half of 2027: The expected closing window, according to TechCrunch.

Seen in a line, the sequence shows how little of the deal's governance has been settled. The antitrust questions pre-date the leadership change, and the pledge that calmed developers was made by the person who has now left. Nothing we found says the transaction terms have changed.

Our take

A promise of neutrality is only as durable as the people who made it. Until a new chief executive is named and the board finishes its review, the pledge is a September statement from a departed executive. We would not move critical workflows off Hugging Face, but we would keep local copies of the weights we depend on, and treat 2027 closing language as a target, not a date. We would watch for a formal Justice Department filing, a statement from Kress or a successor on the pledge, and any change to Hugging Face's terms.