NVIDIA agrees to licensing deal with AI semiconductor startup Groq, the largest deal ever, worth approximately 3 trillion yen

Groq, a semiconductor company developing AI accelerators, announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA for Groq's inference technology. As part of the agreement, Groq's founder and CEO, Jonathan Ross, and President, Sunny Madra, as well as other key executives, will join NVIDIA.

Groq and Nvidia Enter Non-Exclusive Inference Technology Licensing Agreement to Accelerate AI Inference at Global Scale | Groq is fast, low cost inference.

https://groq.com/newsroom/groq-and-nvidia-enter-non-exclusive-inference-technology-licensing-agreement-to-accelerate-ai-inference-at-global-scale

Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion, biggest deal
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html

Groq announced on its blog that it has signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA for Groq's inference technology. According to CNBC, NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Groq's inference technology for $20 billion in cash.

Groq's blog also states that Ross, Madra, and other key Groq executives will 'join NVIDIA to contribute to the growth and expansion of the licensed technology.' The blog also states that Chief Financial Officer Simon Edwards will become the new CEO, and that Groq will remain an 'independent company.'

Alexander Davis, CEO of Disruptive, the investment fund that raised funds for Groq, told CNBC, 'NVIDIA is acquiring all of Groq's assets, but the Groq cloud business is not included in this transaction.' Groq also declared on its blog that 'GroqCloud will continue to operate without interruption.'

Groq is targeting $500 million in revenue for fiscal year 2025 amid surging demand for AI accelerator chips used to speed up inference-related tasks using large-scale language models. According to Davis, the company's enterprise value was estimated at approximately $6.9 billion as of September 2025. Groq also said it was not considering selling its assets when NVIDIA approached it about acquiring them.

CNBC also cited an internal NVIDIA email it obtained, in which NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang wrote, 'We plan to integrate Groq's low-latency processors into NVIDIA's AI factory architecture, expanding the platform to address a broader range of AI inference and real-time workloads.'

CNBC also reported that Huang said in the email, 'We are adding talented employees and licensing Groq's intellectual property, but we are not acquiring Groq as a company.'