Nvidia’s $20 billion licensing deal with AI chip outfit Groq has attracted the attention of US Department of Justice antitrust investigators.
According to PC Gamer the agreement, struck late in 2025, was Nvidia’s biggest deal and gave the GPU giant non-exclusive rights to Groq technology designed for low-latency AI inference.
According to two people familiar with the inquiry, the Department of Justice is examining whether the deal was deliberately structured to avoid the scrutiny normally triggered by an acquisition.
The department has reportedly sent Nvidia a formal demand for information concerning the Groq arrangement. No wrongdoing has been found, and the investigation could conclude there is no case to answer.
The issue is the AI industry’s growing enthusiasm for licensing agreements that provide access to technology, staff and intellectual property without technically buying the company involved.
Such arrangements can avoid the automatic regulatory reviews attached to conventional mergers, which is rather handy when regulators have developed an inconvenient interest in Big Tech.
Groq develops Language Processing Units designed specifically for inference workloads. Nvidia is expected to deploy its first AI rack incorporating Groq technology later this year.
US senators had already asked the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether large technology companies were using these structures to sidestep merger rules.
The senators said regulators “should not allow these [big tech] companies to avoid the typical reviews that your agencies apply to acquisitions and mergers.”
They argued that deals involving Nvidia, Google, Meta and others could “function as de facto mergers, allowing the companies to consolidate talent, information, and resources, all while apparently attempting to bypass the scrutiny typically applied to mergers and acquisitions.”
If investigators decide Nvidia structured the Groq agreement to dodge regulatory oversight, the company could face a fine. With Nvidia’s finances enjoying the AI boom, anything short of a spectacular penalty risks becoming another accounting line item.
