DOJ probes Nvidia licensing deal with Groq

The US Justice Department is investigating whether Nvidia structured its Groq arrangement to avoid antitrust scrutiny, the New York Times reported, according to Reuters citing two people familiar with the matter. This is confidential-inquiry journalism, not a DOJ press release, not a complaint filed in court, and not a consent decree. There is no finding of wrongdoing on the record.

Groq's own 24 December 2025 newsroom post is the public description of the deal. Groq called it a non-exclusive licensing agreement for its inference technology. Founder Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra, and other Groq staff joined Nvidia. Groq said it would remain an independent company under new CEO Simon Edwards, with GroqCloud continuing without interruption.

Reuters, wrapping the Times, says the probe opened shortly after that December announcement and that the department has sent Nvidia a formal request for information. That is more than a casual look. Nvidia has not published the request.

Deal size still does not agree across reputable outlets. Reuters cites a $17 billion deal, while Bloomberg describes a $20 billion licensing agreement, and neither figure appears in Groq's own announcement.

An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters: "The Groq story is a prime example of the American system working as designed to promote innovation, reward entrepreneurs, and benefit consumers." Groq and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters outside regular hours. People describing the inquiry have said an unwind is unlikely and that a fine is the more plausible remedy if the department finds a filing failure. That is source speculation, not a department statement.

License-plus-talent packages are already the comparison set for Nvidia's reported Hugging Face talks and for other large AI capacity and software marks this week, including Anthropic's $45 billion Nscale compute lease and Silver Lake's Cegid-Silae merger. Apple's services antitrust pressure is a separate enforcement track, not this case.

If you sit on an AI M&A or "reverse acquihire" term sheet this quarter, have counsel map HSR risk on license-plus-talent packages before signing, and track whether DOJ's Groq information request becomes a template question in your next chip or inference deal.