Nvidia Makes Record-Breaking $20 Billion Acquisition of AI Chip Startup Groq
In a historic move, Nvidia has agreed to acquire assets from AI chip startup Groq for a staggering $20 billion in cash. This marks a significant consolidation in the artificial intelligence hardware market.
The deal includes a non-exclusive licensing agreement for Groq’s AI inference technology, along with key personnel acquisitions. Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra, and other senior leaders will join Nvidia to help advance and scale the licensed technology. Ross, a former Google engineer who helped create the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), founded Groq in 2016.
The acquisition comes just three months after Groq raised $750 million at a valuation of $6.9 billion. The investors include:
- BlackRock
- Neuberger Berman
- Samsung
- Cisco
Despite the deal, Groq will continue to operate as an independent company under new leadership, with its GroqCloud platform continuing without interruption.
Industry analysts view the transaction as strategic. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon noted that Nvidia is leveraging its “increasingly powerful balance sheet to maintain dominance in key areas.” Nvidia’s cash inflow climbed more than 30% from the previous year to $22 billion in its most recent quarter, enabling such massive deals.
Source: CNBC