AI chip rival Groq has entered a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia. This arrangement includes Nvidia bringing on board Groq’s founder, Jonathan Ross, along with its president, Sunny Madra, and additional staff.
CNBC suggested Nvidia is purchasing assets from Groq for $20 billion; however, Nvidia clarified to TechCrunch that this is not a full company acquisition and declined to specify the deal’s extent. Should CNBC’s figures prove correct, this transaction would represent Nvidia’s most substantial to date, potentially further cementing its dominance in the chip manufacturing sector with Groq’s integration.
With technology firms vying to enhance their AI functionalities, the demand for computing power is high, and Nvidia’s GPUs have become the benchmark. Nevertheless, Groq has been developing a distinct chip known as an LPU (language processing unit), which it asserts can execute LLMs up to ten times quicker while consuming only a tenth of the power. Groq’s CEO, Jonathan Ross, is recognized for such breakthroughs; during his tenure at Google, he contributed to the creation of the TPU (tensor processing unit), a specialized AI accelerator.
Last September, Groq secured $750 million, valuing the company at $6.9 billion. Its expansion has been rapid and substantial; Groq reports supporting the AI applications of over 2 million developers, a considerable increase from approximately 356,000 in the previous year.
This article was updated on 12/24/25 at 5:40 p.m. ET to include additional details from Nvidia regarding the transaction’s specifics.