Nvidia Absorbs Another Rival for $20B, Boosting Decentralized AI

Acquisition Strategy - NVIDIA has agreed to pay approximately $20 billion to acquire assets from AI chip startup Groq, marking its largest transaction on record and continuing its strategy of absorbing potential competitors [1] - The deal closed just three months after Groq raised $750 million at a $6.9 billion valuation, with notable investors including BlackRock, Samsung, and Cisco [2] - The acquisition follows a pattern established by NVIDIA, which previously paid over $900 million to hire Enfabrica's CEO and employees while licensing the startup's technology [3] Competitive Landscape - Groq's Language Processing Unit utilizes on-chip SRAM for improved energy efficiency, claiming up to 10x better performance, which NVIDIA can now leverage within its ecosystem [4] - The timing of the acquisition is significant as Google recently unveiled its seventh-generation TPU and released Gemini 3, indicating increasing competitive pressure in the AI chip market [5] - NVIDIA's response to Google's advancements suggests that the company is aware of the mounting competition and is taking proactive measures to maintain its market dominance [5]