Recent DOJ antitrust inquiries into Nvidia’s acquisitions, such as the Hugging Face platform, and licensing arrangements with AI startups like Groq center on competitive conduct in the artificial intelligence chip market rather than criminal violations. Reports from administration officials explicitly note no indication of criminal charges against the company or former CEO Jensen Huang amid the Megaspeed export-control scrutiny and related personal scandal. With only weeks remaining until year-end and probes focused on civil remedies or third-party smuggling networks, trader consensus reflects the low likelihood of rapid escalation to criminal action. A surprise shift in the ongoing antitrust review or new evidence tying Nvidia directly to export violations could still alter the outlook.