Nvidia Is Reportedly Acquiring AI Chip Designer Groq’s Assets for $20 Billion

Nvidia is reportedly purchasing the artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Groq's assets. As per the report, the chipmaker is acquiring the AI inference technology assets for a price of $20 billion (roughly Rs. 1.79 lakh crore). The amount is nearly threefold of Groq's recent valuation of $6.9 billion (roughly Rs. 61,986 crore), at which the company raised $750 million (roughly Rs. 6,740 crore). Groq has announced the deal vaguely, but did not mention the assets being purchased or the financial details.

Nvidia Reportedly Purchases Groq's Assets

According to CNBC, Nvidia and Groq have reached an agreement that allows the former to buy assets from the latter in an all-cash deal. The publication cited Alex Davis, CEO of Disruptive, for the information. Notably, in September, David led Groq's funding round worth $750 million (roughly Rs. 6,740 crore).

If true, this will mark Nvidia's most expensive purchase at $20 billion (roughly Rs. 1.79 lakh crore), with the previous record held by the company's acquisition of the Israeli chip designer Mellanox for nearly $7 billion (roughly Rs. 62,870 crore) in 2019. Notably, both Mellanox and Groq are fabless companies, meaning while they design chipsets, they do not have the setup to fabricate them.

On Christmas Eve, Groq published a newsroom post, announcing the agreement. However, instead of calling it a purchasing deal, the company referred to it as “a non-exclusive licensing agreement” for its inference technology. As part of the deal, the company's Founder, Jonathan Ross, President Sunny Madra, and several other members will also join Nvidia.

Notably, the company highlighted that its cloud business, GroqCloud, is not part of the deal, and it will continue to run as an independent company under the Chief Finance Officer Simon Edwards, who will now serve as the CEO.

Separately, citing an email to the staff obtained by the publication, CNBC claimed that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes that the deal will expand the chipmaker's capabilities. Huang reportedly also revealed that Groq's low-latency processors will be integrated into Nvidia's AI factory architecture to expand the platform. With this integration, it is said that the platform will serve a broad range of AI inference and real-time workloads.

“While we are adding talented employees to our ranks and licensing Groq's IP, we are not acquiring Groq as a company,” Huang reportedly wrote in the email.