Nvidia has been backing Groq since its founding in 2016, investing more than $500 million in the startup over the years. Just three months ago, Groq raised $750 million at a valuation of $6.9 billion. That funding round included major investors such as BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Samsung, Cisco, Altimeter, and 1789 Capital, a firm linked to Donald Trump Jr.
Earlier, Groq announced a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia covering its inference technology. The deal highlighted both companies’ shared focus on expanding access to high-performance, low-cost AI inference, according to Groq’s blog.
As part of the transaction, Groq founder Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra, and several other key team members will join Nvidia, where they will work on further developing and scaling the licensed technologies. At the same time, Groq will continue operating as an independent company, led by CEO Simon Edwards.
The financial terms have not been fully disclosed. However, Davis noted that Nvidia acquired all of Groq’s assets except its early-stage cloud business. Groq confirmed that GroqCloud will continue operating without disruption.
This marks the largest acquisition in Nvidia’s history. Previously, the company’s biggest deal was the nearly $7 billion purchase of Mellanox in 2019.
Commenting on the acquisition, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the deal would significantly expand the company’s AI capabilities. According to Huang, Nvidia plans to integrate Groq’s low-latency processors into its NVIDIA AI Factory architecture, enabling the platform to support a broader range of AI workloads and real-time applications.
Other tech giants, including Meta, Google and Microsoft, have spent heavily over the last couple years to hire top AI talent through various types of licensing deals.
