Nvidia paid $20 billion for Groq's engineers. The Justice Department opened an investigation.
The US Department of Justice has opened an antitrust investigation into NVIDIA's $20 billion deal with AI inference startup Groq, The Register reported.
The New York Times first reported the probe on 9 September.
The Register describes the late-2025 deal as an acquihire rather than a merger. Groq's inference business stayed nominally independent, while Nvidia took licensing rights to its LPU accelerators and hired the engineers who built them.
Nvidia told reporters the deal is "a prime example of the American system working as designed to promote innovation, reward entrepreneurs, and benefit consumers."
The Register also notes that Cerebras, SambaNova and d-Matrix compete in inference hardware.
Groq is still a company. Its accelerator rights and the engineers who built them now sit with Nvidia.
Does your change-of-control clause cover a supplier that licenses out its technology and its team without being sold?
Sources
Our file on Nvidia
- 17 Oct
ServiceNow showed its AI agent passport blocking a $40 refund. The limit was $25.
- 3 Oct
Nvidia launched its desktop AI computer at $4,000. Nvidia now charges $6,950.
- 1 Oct
Trump ordered federal agencies to rename AI. The new word is Super Intelligence.
- 30 Sept
Samsung and affiliates committed $1 billion to AI infrastructure.
- 30 Sept
Nvidia cleared $150 billion to buy back shares. Apple's biggest was $110 billion.
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