Nvidia has agreed to license chip technology from startup Groq and hire its CEO, a former Google veteran, along with other engineering leaders, Groq said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The deal follows a growing trend among major tech firms of acquiring technology and talent without fully buying the target companies. Groq specializes in inference, where AI models that have already been trained respond to user requests. While Nvidia dominates AI model training, it faces competition in inference from rivals such as AMD and startups including Groq and Cerebras Systems.
Nvidia has a non-exclusive license to Groq’s technology. Groq’s founder Jonathan Ross, Groq President Sunny Madra, and other engineers will join Nvidia. Groq will continue to operate independently under CEO Simon Edwards, with its cloud business remaining intact. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Groq’s valuation more than doubled to $6.9 billion from $2.8 billion last year following a $750 million funding round in September. The startup uses on-chip SRAM memory instead of external high-bandwidth memory, improving AI interaction speed but limiting model size. Its main competitor in this approach is Cerebras Systems, which plans to go public next year.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized at his 2025 keynote that the company aims to maintain leadership as AI markets shift from training to inference. Analysts noted that the deal’s non-exclusive license structure may mitigate antitrust scrutiny, even as Groq’s talent moves to Nvidia. — Reuters
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