DOJ probes Nvidia's $17B license-and-hire absorption of Grok rival Groq
Servola-Journal · reddit · 2026-09-11
Per NYT, the DOJ sent Nvidia a formal document demand over its December deal with Groq: a $17-20B non-exclusive chip license plus hiring Jonathan Ross and most senior engineers, with no merger filing since Groq was never acquired. Groq re-raised in August at a $3.5B valuation—half its prior worth—with Nvidia as an investor, and Nvidia repeated the pattern with Poolside (license plus offers to 109 engineers), raising questions about whether license-and-hire deals are acquisitions in everything but paperwork.
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