From Investor's Business Daily, December 25:
Nvidia (NVDA) will license key technology from AI chip maker Groq and bring over key personnel from the startup, Groq announced Wednesday afternoon. That followed a report that the Dow tech giant would pay $20 billion for Groq. Nvidia stock was indicated fractionally higher Thursday night.
Groq has entered into a non-exclusive licensing deal with Nvidia for the startup's inference technology, the company said in a press release. As part of the agreement, Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, President Sunny Madra and some other Groq employees will join Nvidia.
Groq will remain an independent company, with CFO Simon Edwards becoming CEO. Specifically, Groq's cloud business is not part of the deal. But most assets may be going to Nvidia.
Earlier, CNBC had reported that Nvidia would pay about $20 billion to buy Groq outright.
Financial terms of Nvidia's licensing and hiring deal were not given. Nvidia itself has said nothing as of Christmas morning.
There is some speculation that the not-quite takeover structure is an effort to avoid antitrust objections.
Media reports still are touting a $20 billion figure, though if true it's unclear if that would be a lump sum or include some future milestone payments.
Groq Founded By Google TPU Creators....
....MORE
We had this story in the link-vault before the Groq story came out, it is still accurate. From CNBC December 4:
Nvidia has a cash problem — too much of it
In early pre-market trading NVDA is up $1.08 (+0.57%) at $189.69
