Sept 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Nvidia tried to skirt antitrust scrutiny of the chipmaker’s licensing deal last year with AI chip startup Groq, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia announced a $17 billion deal with Groq last year for a “non-exclusive license” to Groq’s chip technology and hired several of the firm’s executives, including its founder Jonathan Ross.
The Justice Department opened the investigation into the Groq deal shortly after it was announced in December and has sent Nvidia a formal demand seeking information about the transaction, according to the NYT report.
The agency may fine the company if it finds fault with the way Nvidia handled the deal but would probably not require the deal to be undone, the report added.
Nvidia, Groq and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment outside regular business hours.
(Reporting by Carlos Méndez in Mexico City; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich)
