In a new deal, Nvidia hires Groq's top engineering talent, including its founder, who built AI chips at Google

Group 1: Nvidia's Investment and Partnership - Nvidia is increasing its investment in the AI sector through new hires and a licensing agreement with AI hardware startup Groq [1] - Groq has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for its inference technology, while continuing to operate independently [1][2] - Key personnel from Groq, including its Founder Jonathan Ross and President Sunny Madra, will join Nvidia to enhance the licensed technology [3] Group 2: Groq's Background and Valuation - Groq is recognized for its Language Processing Unit, a custom chip designed for AI inference, and was valued at approximately $6.9 billion three months ago [2] - The startup raised around $750 million in its latest funding round [2] Group 3: Industry Trends in Acqui-hire Deals - The deal reflects a rising trend in Silicon Valley towards acqui-hire agreements, which may benefit only a small percentage of startup employees with desirable AI skills [5] - In 2024, Google paid $2.5 billion to license Character.AI's technology, hiring only its two cofounders and 20% of the staff [6] - Meta's recent acqui-hire of Scale AI involved a $14 billion investment for a 49% stake, focusing on acquiring talent [7] Group 4: Challenges of Acqui-hire Deals - Acqui-hire deals do not always yield positive outcomes, as seen with Windsurf, where many employees were left without positions after a failed acquisition [8]