SANTA CLARA, California: Nvidia has struck a deal with artificial intelligence startup Groq to license its chip technology and bring key executives in-house, underscoring how Big Tech companies are increasingly snapping up talent and know-how without formally acquiring startups.

Groq said in a blog post that Nvidia has agreed to a non-exclusive licence for its technology and will hire Groq's chief executive and several senior engineers. The move mirrors a growing pattern in which large technology firms pay for access to innovation and personnel while stopping short of full takeovers.

Groq specialises in AI "inference," the stage at which trained models generate responses to user queries. While Nvidia dominates the market for training AI systems, it faces stiffer competition in inference from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices and from startups including Groq and Cerebras Systems.

Groq said Nvidia would take a non-exclusive licence to its technology. It added that founder Jonathan Ross, who previously helped Google launch its AI chip programme, along with Groq president Sunny Madra and other members of its engineering team, will join Nvidia. A person close to Nvidia confirmed the licensing agreement.

Financial terms were not disclosed. CNBC reported that Nvidia had agreed to acquire Groq for US$20 billion in cash, but neither company commented on the report. Groq said it would continue to operate independently, with Simon Edwards as chief executive, and that its cloud business would remain active.

The transaction echoes several high-profile deals in recent years. Microsoft brought in its top AI executive through a $650 million arrangement described as a licensing fee, while Meta Platforms spent $15 billion to hire the chief executive of Scale AI without buying the company outright. Amazon hired founders from Adept AI, and Nvidia has carried out similar transactions this year. While such deals have attracted regulatory scrutiny, none have been reversed.

"Antitrust would seem to be the primary risk here, though structuring the deal as a non-exclusive license may keep the fiction of competition alive (even as Groq's leadership and, we would presume, technical talent move over to Nvidia)," Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a note to clients. He added that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's "relationship with the Trump administration appears among the strongest of the key US tech companies."

Groq more than doubled its valuation to $6.9 billion from $2.8 billion in August last year after raising $750 million in September.

The company is among a group of AI chip startups that avoid external high-bandwidth memory, relying instead on on-chip SRAM. That approach can speed up chatbot responses but limits the size of models that can be served. Cerebras Systems, Groq's main rival using the same strategy, plans to go public as soon as next year, Reuters reported this month. Both companies have secured large contracts in the Middle East.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang has argued that the company can maintain its lead as the AI market shifts focus from training to inference, a message he reinforced during his biggest keynote speech of 2025.