4 min readNew DelhiSep 10, 2026 09:04 AM IST
Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, speaks during Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose, Calif., March 16, 2026. (Manuel Orbegozo/The New York Times)
The Justice Department is investigating whether Nvidia tried to skirt antitrust scrutiny of a deal it struck with the artificial intelligence chipmaker Groq last year, according to two people with knowledge of the inquiry.
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Groq described the deal at the time as a “nonexclusive licensing agreement” that gave Nvidia access to Groq’s chips, which are custom-built for running AI. As part of the arrangement, Groq’s CEO, Jonathan Ross, and its chief operating officer, Sunny Madra, joined Nvidia.
AI companies have struck numerous deals that involve licensing technology and hiring top employees from other companies without completing an outright acquisition. But those arrangements often evade automatic government reviews — common for traditional mergers and acquisitions — that determine whether a deal would harm competition.