Two Democratic Senators question NVIDIA's $20 billion acquisition of Groq.

Two Democratic senators are launching an investigation into the $20 billion licensing deal between NVIDIA and the AI startup Groq, raising questions about whether the transaction improperly sidesteps merger review and unlawfully entrenches its dominant position in the AI computing power market, in possible violation of antitrust laws.

On Thursday evening, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, requesting more information about the deal. The two senators said the deal’s structure appears to be “intended to evade antitrust regulators’ scrutiny.”

In the letter, the two senators wrote: “We’re concerned that this acquisition could stifle competition, further entrench NVIDIA’s leading position in the AI chip industry, and hand the United States’ technological lead over to China.”

In addition to whether they intentionally sought to evade antitrust review, the lawmakers also asked for disclosure of the specific terms of the Groq transaction.

A spokesperson for NVIDIA said in a statement that the company “did not acquire Groq; Groq is still an independently operated company.”

The spokesperson said: “NVIDIA has obtained a non-exclusive license to Groq’s intellectual property and has hired Groq’s engineering and technical talent, working together to deliver world-leading accelerated computing technology to customers worldwide.”

NVIDIA’s deal with Groq was finalized in late 2025, further expanding its investment in companies tied to the AI boom and bringing a new class of technology into its own products. Under the agreement, NVIDIA receives non-exclusive rights to use Groq technology and brings in part of the startup’s executive team, including its CEO Jonathan Ross, who has joined the chip giant. Although Groq remains an independent company and its cloud business continues to operate independently, the vast majority of its software engineers and hardware designers have moved to NVIDIA.

Although federal antitrust law requires companies to submit most merger deals for review, Groq did not file for antitrust review regarding this licensing agreement. In recent years, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google under Alphabet have all reached similar licensing and talent-hiring agreements with startups as a way to get around antitrust regulators.

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责任编辑：郭明煜