Nvidia’s deal with Groq is back in the spotlight amid reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could look into the deal.
The New York Times reports that DOJ officials have sent a formal request for information to Nvidia regarding the deal. An investigation commenced following its disclosure in late December, with antitrust officials reportedly looking into whether the chip giant sought to skirt an antitrust probe.
Nvidia billed the deal as a “nonexclusive licensing agreement” that saw Groq founder and then CEO Jonathan Ross jump across to Nvidia, along with several key members of the Groq team.
Exact terms were not disclosed, though a reported $20 billion was spent on the apparent licensing deal providing the green light for Groq’s low-latency processors to be integrated into Nvidia’s so-called AI factory architecture.
Nvidia quickly went on to debut the Groq 3 language processing unit (LPU), which forms the basis of the LPX rack-scale platform designed as a complementary add-on for operators running Nvidia's flagship NVL72 to power low-latency AI inference workloads. The platform recently entered full production ahead of an anticipated launch later this year.
