Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Thursday, requesting details about the deal, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.
They said the agreement appeared to have been structured “to evade scrutiny by antitrust regulators.”
The senators warned the arrangement could limit competition, strengthen Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market, and potentially undermine US technological leadership.
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They are seeking clarification on the specific terms of the Groq deal and whether it was intentionally designed to avoid antitrust review.
In response, an Nvidia spokesperson said the company did not acquire Groq, which remains an independent business. Instead, Nvidia obtained a non-exclusive license to Groq’s intellectual property and hired some of its engineering talent.
Finalized at the end of 2025, the deal expanded Nvidia’s investments in the AI sector, granting access to new technologies. While Groq continues to operate its cloud business independently, many of its engineers and senior executives—including CEO Jonathan Ross—have joined Nvidia.
The agreement was not submitted for antitrust review, despite regulations typically requiring oversight for acquisitions. Similar licensing and hiring arrangements by major tech firms such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google have also drawn regulatory attention.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson said earlier this year that such deals are being closely examined.
Nvidia currently dominates the market for AI chips used in training large language models, while Groq focuses on inference—running AI systems after training. Lawmakers argue that Nvidia’s control over key technologies gives it significant influence over competition in the AI industry.
At its annual conference this week, Huang announced plans to integrate Groq’s technology into a new AI computing platform
