Discussion

• @jonathanross321 Jonathan Ross on x

  ...Along with other members of the Groq team, I'll be joining Nvidia to help integrate the licensed technology.  GroqCloud will continue to operate without interruption.

• @svenkatachalam Sandhya Venkatachalam on x

  And they say there is no DPI in AI VC!!! Proud to have invested in Groq at the Seed. Congrats @GroqInc @JonathanRoss321 [image]

• @jasonlk @jasonlk on x

  Groq is a reminder that “important” startups can get a massive premium in M&A It all normalizes at IPO, more or less Valuations then are based on revenue, growth and profits But for venture, investing in important startups can lead to massive outcomes pre-IPO

• @davidsacks David Sacks on x

  Chamath's haters in absolute shambles right now. Congrats Bestie!

• @waynema Wayne Ma on x

  https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Nvidia just announced a $20 billion megadeal for Groq's tech and talent on Christmas Eve. We take a look at why they paid three times the chip startup's valuation just a few months ago and what it means. w/ @PauValida @MilesKruppa @theinformati…

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  Merry Chipmas!

• @edzitron.com Ed Zitron on bluesky

  Profound loser energy behind this deal too, nobody is impressed or thought groq was worth that.  Groq had to restate revenue a few months back.  Wonder how Jensen Huang gets away with not sending cash?  Earnings seem to suggest he didn't even send $5bn to intel yet.  Tick tock Je…

• @edzitron.com Ed Zitron on bluesky

  The ai industry gets another win, by which I mean yet another ai company isn't being sold for actual money and has to do some weird licensing deal.  This will be sold as “avoiding regulation” but I think it's so it can avoid actually owning these toxic assets while draining them …

• @chamath Chamath Palihapitiya on x

  Today we close this almost decade chapter and Jonathan starts a new one with nVidia.  I can't thank him enough.  Sometimes it's simply better to be lucky than good and be fortunate enough to work with great people and follow them into battle.  That is me here.  Jonathan was not o…

• @naveengrao Naveen Rao on x

  Yup. This was a defensive move. It's better to buy out and neutralize the threat than to allow it to take root. Nvidia could build the same thing, but they didn't do it at the time that Groq did.

• @gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x

  Big Tech has a new playbook on how to acquire startups w/o triggering anti-trust acquisition: call it a licensing deal... while all key staff from the company (founders, key folks also join. Leave a zombie company behind. Google did it with Windsurf & Character, Meta with Scale

• @iankar_ Ian Kar on x

  So the other big thing: not sure how Nvidia can both say TPU's aren't a big deal and also acquire the father of TPU's' company. Which then leads me to wonder whether Michael Burry was right after all

• @luke_metro @luke_metro on x

  why does every explanation of this deal also sound like an antitrust argument against the acquisition

• @scottastevenson Scott Stevenson on x

  Is this just another shitty Windsurf pseudo-acquisition that leaves employees high and dry? I guess it's an antitrust workaround, but important for us to know how the economics impact the exiting management vs. employees who stay. [image]

• @nathanbenaich Nathan Benaich on x

  there's another “only in America” episode to be written around the outcomes of Groq and Graphcore similar thesis that new silicon needed to power ai breakthroughs neither hit rev scale to continue on their own vs nvidia/tpu but one had pro-tech gov insiders end of story

• @stevenbartlett Steven Bartlett on x

  After a call with Jonathan Ross, the founder of @GroqInc a little while ago - I was absolutely convinced I was speaking to a very very rare genius. Accordingly I wrote the biggest cheque I could and invested into Groq. No surprise to read this headline today. Congrats Jon + [imag…

• @linusekenstam @linusekenstam on x

  I'm very bullish on NVIDIA Groq is by far my favorite company in the inference game. Been writing and talking about them since inception. congrats to @JonathanRoss321 and the entire @GroqInc team on this mega deal. [image]

• @_arohan_ Rohan Anil on x

  the competitive pressures having Groq inside Nvidia to other chip vendors will lead to intense competition on inference chips. And we all win from that to some extent.

• @bubbleboi Bubble Boi on x

  Groq is just the start I expect Etched and Cerebras to IPO or get acquired at 50B+

• @ibuildthecloud Darren Shepherd on x

  This is weird. Somebody explain why this makes sense.

• @gauravisnotme Gaurav on x

  If this is true, this would automatically validate two things - 1. TPUs have really made Nvidia acknowledge custom AI accelerators to be a valid threat. Inference costs are real and GPUs need supplemental support to make the end-to-end serving feasible. 2. More importantly,

• @liebermanaustin Austin Lieberman on x

  Kind of insane that $NVDA is buying Groq for the knowledge its founders have about Google TPUs. Jensen going on Offense. [image]

• @villi @villi on x

  For the first time in 15+ years I actually think in 2026 we may see a robust M&A environment. Buyers will want to take advantage of inflated equity values to do deals and think it may spill over outside of AI.

• @blip_tm Zach on x

  great call by @SemiAnalysis_ — anybody who knows anything about AI chips knows groq's first gen chips aren't competitive but maybe their upcoming chips might have been able to threaten nvidia?

• @josephjacks_ @josephjacks_ on x

  Overly simplistic take from Groq competitor.

• @bubbleboi Bubble Boi on x

  Lmao Jensen wins again !!!

• @kakashiii111 @kakashiii111 on x

  I doubt it will pass regulatory approval. Nothing to be excited about. Oh, and remember when Nvidia and everyone told you that TPUs were not a threat to Nvidia? Well... [image]

• @draecomino James Wang on x

  So many bad takes on Groq as if its LPU is some magical new architecture or a TPU for hire. Groq's micro architecture does not matter. The *only* reason Groq has any traction is because it bet on SRAM. Without SRAM, there's no speed advantage, no PMF, no demand, and no

• @mattturck Matt Turck on x

  Breaking: NVIDIA announces giant $20B acquisition, forcing everyone in tech to try to remember which one is Groq and which one is Grok

• @fcvprzhfgsybj Elias on x

  congrats to the groq team! :) may thy chips overheat and burn [image]

• @philipjohnston Philip Johnston on x

  Incredible outcome for Groq investors, congrats all!

• @deryatr_ Derya Unutmaz on x

  I agree this is a big deal, although for $20 billion NVIDIA got a non-exclusive licensing agreement for inference technology, and @GroqInc remains a separate company!

• @villi @villi on x

  Nvidia seems to be utilizing the same structure as other notable acquisitions in AI this year to avoid antitrust scrutiny. I wrote about how this works here. https://medium.com/...

• @josephjacks_ @josephjacks_ on x

  Huge. Jensen buys @GroqInc for $20B cash.. @chamath clears > $1B net on the initial seed / A money they invested at $30M Val in 2016. 150X after dilution. Congrats to @JonathanRoss321 and team. Very bullish for NVIDIA to own this...

• @krishnanrohit Rohit on x

  The remnants of Scale, Windsurf, Groq, Character AI and Inflection should merge together to form a super zombie full stack powerhouse

• @0xdevshah Dev Shah on x

  Google will never sell TPUs. The moment Google sells TPUs at scale, they transform their architectural advantage into a commodity. Google's internal teams have first-order claims on TPU capacity because those workloads directly generate revenue and strategic moats. Any TPU sold

• @theaustinlyons Austin Lyons on x

  Acquihire? Kind of like $MSFT and Inflection AI, $META and Scale AI, etc? [image]

• @hypertechinvest Daniel Romero on x

  $NVDA buying Groq is more a sign of weakness than a sign of strength [image]

• @bearlyai @bearlyai on x

  Nvidia will acquire assets and key talent from chipmaking startup Groq for $20B (officially called a “non-exclusive licensing agreement). Groq co-founder and CEO Jonathan Ross was lead designer and artchitect for the first generation of Google's TPU chips. He'll join Nvidia [imag…

• @matthewberman Matthew Berman on x

  .@Nvidia sells chips, not inference. @GroqInc sells inference, not chips. Will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out.

• @turnernovak Turner Novak on x

  “You're bearish? CEO of the company propping up the global economy is closing $20B all-cash deals on Christmas Eve and you're bearish?” [image]

• @edzitron Ed Zitron on x

  Even if it does...Groq? This Groq? https://www.theinformation.com/ ... [image]

• @patrickmoorhead Patrick Moorhead on x

  If true, this is huge: -reaffirms XPU thesis -helps $NVDA hedge against XPU -solid hardware and software teams -not just because I was an early investor 😉

• @jukan05 Jukan on x

  Dylan Patel speculates that Jensen may have pursued the acquisition because he saw something in Groq's 2nd- or 3rd-generation chips. Do you think Jensen viewed Groq's next-generation chips as a real threat to NVIDIA—strong enough to compete—and moved to eliminate a potential [ima…

• @bgurley Bill Gurley on x

  Odd way to say “I was wrong”.

• @vinnylingham Vinny Lingham on x

  What a fantastic memory to read and outcome for the @GroqInc team and @chamath, @sundeep and @GavinSherry. Congrats guys - you all are living proof that cream rises to the top!

• @andrawesbahou Andrawes on x

  I think Nvidia acquired Groq *now*, to hedge against DRAM prices and capacity. If you didn't know, DRAM prices exploded recently. While nvidia GPUs are HBM (i.e DRAM heavy), Groq chips rely on in-chip SRAM. There are architectural and compiler-dependent ways to do this, so likely…

• @0xdevshah Dev Shah on x

  I think Sama missed this one. $20B is cheap for super fast inferencing.

• @badcapitalvc Arjun Malhotra on x

  Christmas came early for us this year! As early investors in @GroqInc, what a privilege to see this incredible journey to @nvidia - the biggest company in the world making their largest acquisition! Massive congrats to @sundeep, @GavinSherry, @n1th1nrao, and the entire Groq [imag…

• @josephjacks_ @josephjacks_ on x

  If NVIDIA implements Groq properly, and they have a stunningly great M&A integration history, it will result in trillions of additional market cap given the worlds insatiable demand for faster AI inference. This reminds me of NVIDIA's purchase of Mellanox in 2019 ($6.9B, also

• @pauvalida Valida Pau on x

  Nothing more enjoyable to do on Xmas eve :) Some of Nvidia's deal term with Groq and how Groq's tech helps Nvidia with its chip offering👇🏻 w/ @waynema @MilesKruppa @Katie_Roof [image]

• @curiouscamilo Camilo on x

  People criticize @chamath so much. This is a stellar memo. He's an extremely sharp and talented investor. Like Hummingbird, FF, and others, he proves right again that venture is an asset class of people: “Special person: Yes” “It's a team bet” [image]

• @anandx Anand Agarawala on x

  Incredibly proud seed investor. When a random intro you make 9 years ago turns into $20B 🤯🤯. Lesson: always try to be helpful! So proud of @sundeep and the whole squad. Wow!! What's the valuable company in the world makes their biggest acquisition ever 😱

• @conorsen Conor Sen on x

  Dems should recognize that Silicon Valley has hacked M&A, so Lina Khan can block struggling airlines from merging but Mark Zuckerberg can get the key people and IP from the next Instagram with or without a formal merger.

• @jeffreyw5000 Jeff Weinstein on x

  HUGE CONGRATS to Mike for one of the most successful investments in venture history. Seeded Groq, now a **$20B** cash exit!!

• @anmolm_ Anmol Maini on x

  being the sole lead of a company's first round of capital infusion that ends up getting acquired* for $20b must feel incredible brown boys stay winning in 2025 [image]

• @mweinbach Max Weinbach on x

  Nvidia/Groq makes a ton of sense This gets Nvidia the IP they need to bypass CoWoS and HBM for a fast inference focused chip, and use NVLink for better chip to chip interconnect of the LPU This actually makes a ton of sense

• @0xdevshah Dev Shah on x

  Nvidia paid 3X Groq's September valuation to acquire it. This is strategically nuclear. Every AI lab was GPU dependent, creating massive concentration risk. Google broke free with TPUs for internal use, proving the “Nvidia or nothing” narrative was false. This didn't just [image]

• @stevejang Steve Jang on x

  $20B key team acquihire + license. Smart to get TPU know-how in house. Playing go, not chess now. [image]

• @doodlestein Jeffrey Emanuel on x

  Crazy that the FTC forced iRobot/Roomba into bankruptcy rather than let Amazon rescue them, but now it's ok for Nvidia to completely neutralize Groq as a potential competitor for $20b. [image]

• @iankar_ Ian Kar on x

  One of the best takes on Nvidia-Grok I've read so far

• @iankar_ Ian Kar on x

  Back of the envelope math but owning 30% at seed and roughly 50% dilution (aggressive since they reinvested$ gives Chamath 15% of a $20B exit aka $3b

• @lifebypixels Mark Heaps on x

  I spent years giving blood, sweat, tears, and had at least 2 emergency surgeries while at @GroqInc. The outpouring of messages today have been crazy and all I can say is I have no idea what any of this looks like going forward. I've always said the tech is great. More to come.

• @theo @theo on x

  Not quite. Looks like NVIDIA poached the Groq founder. Another weird licensing company gutting, similar to Meta x Scale and Google x Windsurf [image]

• @zephyr_z9 @zephyr_z9 on x

  Groq's offerings are well-suited for prefill and will shine in the era of disaggregated prefill and decode Will regulators allow the acquisition??

• @levelsio @levelsio on x

  Why @nvidia acquihiring @Groq for $20B is so interesting: It looks like a direct (and fast!) reaction by Nvidia to Google successfully using its own TPU chips for training AI models and inference (generating AI content) Because until recently, they used mostly Nvidia's GPUs...the…

• @0xkrma Karma on x

  I think the Groq acquisition by Nvidia is mostly a play by Jensen to get Chamath and David Sacks in his pocket so that they lobby for lenient export controls.

• @kakashiii111 @kakashiii111 on x

  I would not be surprised if Jensen already knows this will not pass regulatory approval.  This acquisition attempt may serve another purpose: delaying Groq's progress and weakening competition while they are kept in a “preparing to be acquired” limbo.  Like a whale swallowing a f…

• @benbajarin Ben Bajarin on x

  On the NVIDIA Groq deal not entirely sure what is going on now but this is a very odd arrangement. https://groq.com/...

• @dylan522p Dylan Patel on x

  Damn even Nvidia is tax loss harvesting Tis the season I guess

• @pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x

  I would love to know what the bidding war for this was like. There had to be a bunch of suitors Company closed a series C extension early 2024 at around $1B, amazing mark for those guys [image]

• @mattzeitlin Matthew Zeitlin on x

  So does a a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement + hiring key staff count as a merger for the purpose of investment banking league label

• @boringbiz_ @boringbiz_ on x

  Chamath after making $4B from a seed investment in Groq (just announced $20B sale to NVIDIA) One of the best venture outcomes of all time [image]

• @benbajarin Ben Bajarin on x

  Also, announce on Christmas Eve and nothing from NVIDIA means they didn't want to make a big deal of this.

• @mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x

  A Christmas Eve Hackquisition! 🎁

• @peer_rich @peer_rich on x

  these licensing acquihire deals always feel so fishy to me i guess regulators made real acquisitions too scary congrats to Groq team either way!

• @trace_cohen @trace_cohen on x

  WOH WAIT Nvidia just windsurfed Groq!? Hire and license strikes again! Hahaha No way they could legally buy them any other way. Damn.... [image]

• @suhail @suhail on x

  Congrats @JonathanRoss321 Some random night I sat next to Jonathan at dinner and listened to him answer every question about Groq.  So I tried asking much harder technical questions just to see how far we could go down the rabbit hole.  At the end, I was just blown away by his de…

• @thogge Tyler Hogge on x

  It appears groq will return over $4b to social capital and @chamath I don't know how big the fund was, but it's safe to say this is one of the best venture outcomes of all time. Unbelievable. Power laws rule everything around me.

• @iancutress @iancutress on x

  Looks like @NVIDIA just extracted @Groq's employees and a non-exclusive hardware license to bring it into NVLink for $20B.  @Groq remains running GroqCloud, but everyone of note joins NVIDIA, including CTO and architects.  What is going on? (a) If they were acquiring for the midd…

• @zephyr_z9 @zephyr_z9 on x

  Regulators wouldn't have allowed a $20B acquistion

• @mweinbach Max Weinbach on x

  Groq LPU moves all of the weights from HBM to the SRAM memory on the accelerator die. On Global Foundry 14nm, that's a 725mm die with 256MB of cache If you move that same die to TSMC, that shrinks to roughly 225mm with the same specs but also lowers power The SRAM speed is 10x

• @cicatelligiusep Giuseppe Cicatelli on x

  Echoing @chamath's heartfelt reflection—what an incredible nearly-decade journey As an investor in @GroqInc I'm deeply grateful to @JonathanRoss321 for his visionary genius (father of the TPU and builder of Groq's breakthrough inference tech) and for assembling such a

• @buccocapital @buccocapital on x

  @BenBajarin ... Merry Christmas to the remaining Groq employees

• @yuchenj_uw Yuchen Jin on x

  Wow, so it's basically an acqui-hire. Nvidia just picked up Groq's co-founders, including Jonathan, the co-creator of Google TPUs. Similar to the Meta <-> Scale AI (Alexander Wang) and Google <-> Windsurf deals. [image]

• @shaunmmaguire Shaun Maguire on x

  @chamath @JonathanRoss321 Huge congrats to you and the Groq team! A legendary milestone for all

• @officiallogank Logan Kilpatrick on x

  @JonathanRoss321 Congrats to you and the Groq team, the world needs more compute, onwards!!!

• @highyieldharry @highyieldharry on x

  Bad Christmas news. Unfortunately, Chamath led the initial funding & then the convertible notes in 2017 & 2018, so he just hit the lottery on this sale.

• @benitoz Ben Pouladian on x

  This wasn't an acquisition It was smarter Nvidia licensed Groq's inference tech non-exclusively while pulling the brains in-house Avoids antitrust locks up know-how kills a future rival without buying the company Offense disguised as partnership Congrats @sundeep @GroqInc [image]

• @groqinc @groqinc on x

  Groq has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for Groq's inference technology. GroqCloud will continue to operate without interruption. Learn more here: https://groq.com/...

• @mweinbach Max Weinbach on x

  Nvidia DID NOT acquire Groq, contrary to the CNBC report It's inference technology licensing and a few Groq execs will be joining Nvidia. Groq will still be a separate company. https://groq.com/... [image]

• @coryweinberg Cory Weinberg on x

  The AI startup exit winners of 2025 are Groq, Scale AI, and CoreWeave - 3 companies that a lot of VCs avoided.

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky

  Nvidia just acquihired Groq's senior leadership team for $20B in a licensing deal that's become the norm in the AI space.  —  Just like Windsurf -> Google & Inflection AI -> Microsoft, they get the benefits of an acquisition without antitrust woes.  —  I wonder how much Google TP…