DOJ Investigates Whether Nvidia Structured Its $20B Groq Deal to Dodge Antitrust Review

The US Department of Justice is investigating whether Nvidia structured its $20 billion agreement with AI chip startup Groq specifically to avoid triggering automatic antitrust review — a probe that opened shortly after the deal was announced in December and has since escalated to a formal request for information.

Rather than acquiring Groq outright, Nvidia took a non-exclusive license to its chip technology and hired several of its executives, including founder Jonathan Ross and COO Sunny Madra, who both moved to Nvidia. Structured this way, the deal sidestepped the merger-review process a traditional acquisition would have triggered — which is precisely what investigators are examining.

If regulators find wrongdoing, fines are possible, though unwinding the deal entirely is considered unlikely. The inquiry could also end without any enforcement action, but it adds to a growing pile of regulatory scrutiny facing Nvidia as it continues acquiring talent and technology through deal structures that don't look like conventional M&A.

Photo of the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.