[NVIDIA and Groq Deal Under Investigation by U.S. Department of Justice, Potential Antitrust Scrutiny] Odaily Planet Daily News – According to two informed sources, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether NVIDIA (NVDA.O) attempted to circumvent antitrust review in order to finalize a deal signed last year with AI chip manufacturer Groq. At the time, Groq described the deal as a "non-exclusive licensing agreement," allowing NVIDIA to use Groq's chips specifically designed for running AI tasks. As part of the arrangement, Groq's CEO Jonathan Ross and COO Sunny Madra joined NVIDIA. AI companies have struck several similar deals, including licensing technology from other firms and hiring key personnel from those companies, without completing direct acquisitions. Such arrangements often bypass the automatic reviews imposed by the government on traditional merger and acquisition deals, which are designed to assess whether a transaction would harm market competition. (Jin10)