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Throughout October, the Saudi capital of Riyadh has been repeatedly targeted by attacks from the Houthi islamist paramilitary group.

The largest attack on Riyadh King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 10 killed 12 people while, more recently, Saudi air defenses shot down two ballistic missiles that the Iran-backed militia fired toward the capital from Yemen on Oct. 29.

The renewed wave of hostilities comes amid a greater wave of instability across the entire Middle Eastern region set off by the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran in February 2026; as the Houthis seized more land along the coastline of Yemen by September, Saudi-backed forces intensified military operations.

Air France once again extends suspension of flights to Riyadh and Dubai

While King Khalid International resumed limited service following a two-week shutdown on Oct. 25, the situation on the ground in Saudi Arabia remains too dangerous for most international airlines.

Most governments have also raised the travel advisory levels and issued warnings to citizens against traveling to the country at the current moment.

Delta Air Lines pushed back the launch of its long-awaited flight to Riyadh and Atlanta from this October to March 2027 while Dutch flag carrier KLM recently also confirmed that it will not restart its routes to Riyadh and Dammam from Amsterdam until Nov. 27, 2026.

Related: Airport shut down, international airlines cancel flights after Houthi attack

French flag carrier Air France has become the latest airline to extend the suspension of its flight to Riyadh to Paris until Dec. 12. The flight from Paris to Dubai, which Air France has also not run since February 2026, will also remain suspended until Nov. 12.

Just like its main international competitors, Air France has had to push back previously-set schedule restart dates for Dubai and Riyadh at least a dozen times since the start of 2026 amid lack of a ceasefire and repeated fresh waves of hostilities. The initial plan was to restart the route to Riyadh on Nov. 7 and the flight to Dubai on Oct. 31.

Repeated Houthi attacks on the Saudi capital of Riyadh has led to weeks of disrupted air service.Shutterstock

“A security situation on the ground that is highly fluid”: Air France

“The resumption of operations will remain subject to an assessment of the security situation on the ground, which is highly fluid,” Air France says in a statement on its flight restart timeline that has been in place for months. “The airline continuously monitors the geopolitical situation in the territories served and overflown by its aircraft in order to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security.”

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Those who have kept their original Air France booking to Riyadh or Dubai can continue to push it back or request a refund to the original method of payment. The two destinations are covered by an extended travel waiver due to the regional instability and difficulty around planning future service.

With service from international carriers remaining severely restricted, United Arab Emirates carriers Emirates and Eithad Airways are now the primary way travelers can get to Dubai while Saudia currently has limited service into the country from other Middle Eastern destinations.

Related: Delta Air Lines will exit an entire market until March 2027

Most people using an artificial intelligence chatbot will never know which company helped a developer find the model behind it.

That is what makes Nvidia’s (NVDA) proposed $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face important.

One of the biggest resources for developers to find, test, modify, and deploy AI models is Hugging Face.

Well over 18 million developers, researchers, and creators use the platform, while over 200,000 companies use it to build and deploy AI, according to Nvidia.

The U.S. Department of Justice is now questioning if granting Nvidia control of that platform would have an impact on artificial intelligence competition.

Officials are examining whether owning Hugging Face would give Nvidia control of what Reuters described as a fundamental distribution point for AI and whether that position could be used to disadvantage competing chip, cloud or AI providers.

The question of whether Nvidia can acquire another business is not the only one that affects customers.

The question is whether the infrastructure supporting upcoming AI products remains competitive enough to offer developers meaningful options.

These decisions may ultimately affect the AI services companies develop, their operating expenses, and the technologies made available to customers.

Nvidia wants something its chips alone cannot provide

Nvidia already dominates the top processors used to train and operate many of the most potent AI systems available today.

But it’s a different experience when you use Hugging Face.

The platform hosts more than 3 million models, 500,000 datasets and 1 million applications, according to Nvidia.

Consider Hugging Face as a cross between an AI developer app marketplace and GitHub.

Developing an AI model from scratch is not always necessary for a firm looking to create a chatbot, picture generator, coding aid, or specialized business tool.

It may go to Hugging Face, locate current models, evaluate them, and modify one to suit its requirements.

Additionally, the platform links developers with the computer infrastructure needed to execute such models.

Nvidia’s shareholding may be significant because of these factors.

Nvidia already heavily influences the hardware at the base of the AI stack.

Purchasing Hugging Face would put it in a strong position and bring it considerably closer to the developers’ decision about what to build on top.

I previously wrote in TheStreet that this was the strategic logic behind Nvidia’s nearly $13 billion acquisition.

It appears that the Justice Department is now posing a similar query:

Could being closer to those developers also give Nvidia too much leverage over its competitors?

The DOJ is looking beyond the Hugging Face deal

The Justice Department’s inquiries are a part of a larger investigation of Nvidia’s investments, acquisitions, and sales strategies, according to Reuters.

Officials have investigated whether Nvidia has persuaded consumers to purchase further Nvidia goods by using its leading AI processors.

The DOJ has also closely examined Nvidia’s acquisition of SchedMD and Run, which improves the efficiency of software designed to employ AI computers.

SchedMD creates open-source software to control processing workloads on powerful servers.

According to Reuters, the government has also looked into Nvidia’s 2025 deal to recruit some of the semiconductor startup’s engineers and license technology from Groq.

That doesn’t prove any misconduct.

Lawsuits are not always the result of government investigations, and the Justice Department has not formally charged Nvidia with violating antitrust laws regarding Hugging Face.

However, the pattern clarifies why regulators may view the transaction differently than a typical software buy.

Faster processors are no longer the sole way Nvidia is growing.

It is investing in and purchasing businesses within the AI ecosystem.

Nvidia’s $12.9 billion bet could test the limits of its powerSean Gallup / Getty Images

Nvidia promises Hugging Face will stay open

Nvidia has already resolved the most apparent issue.

After the transaction is finalized, Hugging Face will continue to be open to competing technologies, according to the business.

Developers will continue to choose their own models, software frameworks, cloud providers, and computing platforms, according to Nvidia.

That pledge is essential.

Because developers may utilize Hugging Face regardless of whether their infrastructure comes from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, or another source, it has gained value.

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Google and Broadcom (AVGO) are collaborating on specialized AI chips.

With its accelerators, AMD is fiercely competing with Nvidia.

The platform would lose some of its initial appeal if developers ever came to the conclusion that Hugging Face was favoring Nvidia’s technology more and more.

This gives Nvidia a commercial incentive to maintain its neutrality even in the absence of governmental pressure.

However, Nvidia has a more subtle edge.

It may not have to stop competitors.

Nvidia may be able to provide Hugging Face’s millions of users with more convenient hardware, software, and cloud services if it owns the platform.

A developer may still have the option of selecting Google or AMD.

All Nvidia has to do is make it easier to select Nvidia.

The antitrust review may focus on this difference.

Why this could eventually matter to your AI bill

Consumers do not generally buy industrial AI accelerators. But they do pay for the products built with them. OpenAI charges for ChatGPT subscriptions. Google sells premium Gemini access.

AI coding tools, customer support software, and productivity applications are becoming more and more expensive for businesses.

A series of expenses, beginning with computer infrastructure, underlies such services.

Competition between Nvidia, AMD, Google, and other hardware providers may determine the cost of training and operating AI.

Competition among cloud providers also affects the same equation.

Additionally, the platforms that developers use to choose and implement such technologies might affect how simple it is for rivals to reach consumers.

Because of these factors, the Justice Department’s Hugging Face investigations may eventually have an impact outside of Silicon Valley.

Suppliers will have to compete more fiercely on price and performance if developers have more options.

Regulators are concerned that such decisions may lose significance if one business controls too many crucial layers of the AI ecosystem.

As of yet, there is no proof that Nvidia has limited those options with Hugging Face.

The firm is not yet owned by Nvidia.

Subject to regulatory clearance, the transaction is anticipated to conclude in the first half of 2027.

However, Nvidia’s approach is beginning to look more reasonable.

The company’s goal is to acquire more than just the AI chips.

The sector is already seeing an increase in its investments.

I recently reported in TheStreet that Nvidia purchased $42.4 billion of equity securities during the first half of fiscal 2027, more than 30 times the amount from the same period a year earlier.

The Hugging Face agreement further fuels that growth.

Millions of individuals would use Nvidia’s gateway to determine what they use to develop the next generation of AI apps.

That’s precisely why the purchase may be so beneficial.

It is also why Washington is asking questions.

Related: Tesla and Nvidia just found another AI bottleneck

As mentioned in my previous Seagate BofA coverage, I spend a good part of my day on my computer. And between work documents, trading journals, downloaded reports, photos, and backups, I’m constantly adding new files.

I hardly notice how much space they’re taking up, but I know they’re slowly eating into my storage.

While looking into Seagate today, I can’t help but wonder how much more space I’ll need a few years from now. And if I’m using this storage on my own, imagine what businesses and AI data centers need.

Research firm TrendForce said AI is generating so much data that storage infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Demand for nearline hard drives, which are widely used in data centers, has surged beyond what manufacturers can produce. 

Western Digital is a Seagate competitor and has validated the massive demand. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Irving Tan said Western Digital had already sold out its hard drive capacity for 2026, according to a transcript published by Investing.com. 

The shortage is also affecting everyday buyers, with external drive deliveries potentially taking six to 10 weeks longer. According to TrendForce, Western Digital raised hard drive prices, citing unprecedented demand.

Seagate (STX) is one of the companies caught in the middle of this growing storage crunch. In its Oct. 27 fiscal first-quarter 2027 results, it reported $4.2 billion in revenue, non-GAAP EPS of $7.68, and a record $1.5 billion in free cash flow. 

CEO Dave Mosley said long-term customer visibility points to a “multi-year growth phase.” However, Seagate shipped less storage than Wall Street expected.

Also Read: BofA sees 80% upside for Seagate stock, but Micron shares look cheaper

Seagate’s reset quarter: fewer exabytes, higher prices

In a note shared with me at TheStreet, Morgan Stanley cut its price target to $1,148 from $1,200. It kept an Overweight rating and a Top Pick designation. The bank sees about 72% upside from the $667.85 close on Oct. 27. BofA sees 80% upside, TheStreet reported.

Here is the miss. Nearline exabytes, the measure of how much data Seagate’s data center drives hold, hit a record 198 but grew just 2% from the prior quarter, short of Morgan Stanley’s 6%. 

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December-quarter EPS guidance came in below the $9.50 to $10 some big investors hoped for, though 6% above consensus. Morgan Stanley lowered its fiscal 2027 and 2028 earnings-per-share estimates to $40.84 and $76.64, respectively.

The shares have still returned 154.27% year to date and 214.84% over one year, according to Yahoo Finance. They trade at 8.3 times Morgan Stanley’s 2028 EPS, near the low end of their historical valuation range.

Seagate shipments slipped while prices jumped

Seagate traded a few bits for better pricing. Price per terabyte rose 16% from the prior quarter because demand outran supply. Management says customers are prioritizing storage access over price, with no signs of demand destruction. 

Morgan Stanley says technology, yield, and data center power challenges did not hold shipments back. A shift toward smaller enterprise drives and staging new products for customer testing explain much of it.

Related: Seagate’s booming business comes with an unexpected twist

The new high-capacity storage products use HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording, which lets drives hold more data on the same disks. Seagate’s Mozaic 4 line offers 40-terabyte drives, and more cloud and enterprise customers are expected to qualify them in the coming months.

Management expects a meaningful jump in exabytes in December, the key proof point, though it gave no number.

Customers are locking in supply. Most of Seagate’s data center exabytes are allocated through 2028, and customers are signing long-term agreements through 2030.

Rising costs were another disappointment. Cost per terabyte increased 3% from the previous quarter as memory and other externally sourced components became more expensive.

That’s a sharp reversal from a year earlier, when costs were falling by roughly 15%. Pricing offset it, with non-GAAP gross margin at 57.8%, up 5 points, and management guiding to further gains through fiscal 2027.

Management also dismissed headlines that Seagate and Toshiba were competing for TDK’s hard drive business, which Bloomberg reported Oct. 6 and both companies pushed back on. 

Seagate says even a doubling of Toshiba’s output would win it only a few points of share. It plans about 25% annual exabyte growth on largely flat unit production, which Morgan Stanley reads as supply discipline.

Seagate’s cost per terabyte increased 3% from the previous quarter as memory and other externally sourced components became more expensive.NurPhoto / Getty Images

Morgan Stanley sees $1,148 as demand outruns supply

Cash is the cushion. Seagate retired $1.2 billion of debt, repurchased $400 million of shares, and raised its dividend about 3% to $0.76.

Buybacks should step up in the March 2027 quarter, and Morgan Stanley says fewer shares should lift EPS. About $4.4 billion remains authorized.

The $1,148 target is 15 times 2028 EPS of $76.64, against the $59.38 Wall Street consensus. The bank’s verdict is that the story has bent in the short term but is not broken.

For investors, December shipments will show whether Seagate can grow volume without giving up price.

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