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Nvidia has strengthened its grip on the artificial intelligence sector by recruiting the senior leadership of emerging AI chip firm Groq, according to a statement released on Wednesday, as the US technology giant continues to expand its influence across the industry.
Groq said the departure of its top executives forms part of a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia covering its AI inference technology, with both companies aiming to widen access to faster and more affordable AI processing solutions.
Under the arrangement, Groq founder Jonathan Ross and company president Sunny Madra, alongside several other team members, will move to Nvidia to assist in developing and scaling Groq’s technology. Despite the leadership exit, Groq will continue operating as an independent company under newly appointed chief executive Simon Edwards.
Nvidia has come to dominate the market for AI training chips, a position that has helped propel it to become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation. However, the firm faces growing competition in AI inference — the process that allows trained models to generate outputs such as answers from chatbots or object recognition in images — from specialised startups including Groq.
The announcement followed closely on the heels of a CNBC report claiming Nvidia was in talks to acquire Groq outright for $20 billion. That claim was later disputed, with a source close to the matter telling AFP that no sale had taken place.
Industry observers have likened the deal to an “acquihire”, a Silicon Valley practice in which large technology firms recruit key personnel from smaller startups while leaving the company itself intact. The strategy is increasingly used to sidestep regulatory scrutiny from competition authorities wary of big tech firms acquiring potential future rivals.
Similar arrangements have become more common in recent years. In 2024, Microsoft struck a deal with AI startup Inflection AI that saw co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and much of the team join Microsoft while Inflection remained independent. Google has also pursued comparable moves, bringing in teams from companies such as Character.AI.
Meta’s 2025 agreement to invest $14.3 billion in Scale AI and appoint its chief executive Alexandr Wang to head its new “superintelligence” AI lab is widely regarded as one of the largest acquihires to date.
