|
|
|
Dec 26, 2025
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nvidia on Wednesday struck a deal to license technology from Groq, one of its best-funded rivals developing AI chips, and hire the startup’s leaders for approximately $20 billion, The Information reported. The companies didn’t disclose financial details but Nvidia said the deal is structured as a nonexclusive licensing arrangement rather than an outright acquisition, a tactic that may help the world’s most valuable company avoid immediate regulatory review. This follows a pattern of Nvidia using its financial might to cement its market position, including a similar, smaller licensing-and-hiring deal with networking startup Enfabrica.
The Groq move gives Nvidia access to intellectual property for chips that process data faster for specific AI inference tasks, potentially allowing Nvidia to design server chips that are cheaper and more efficient for running AI applications compared to its current general-purpose graphics processing units. Groq’s chips aim to keep data on the processor itself rather than shuttling it back and forth to separate high-bandwidth memory chips, whereas Nvidia chips rely more heavily on HBM chips. That reliance exposes Nvidia to a memory supply chain controlled by a handful of firms. The Groq deal underscores the immense difficulty AI chip startups face in challenging Nvidia’s market dominance, even with billions in venture funding. Groq, for instance, recently had to slash its 2025 revenue projections by about 75%. It was recently valued at $6.9 billion in an equity
funding, which explains why the $20 billion deal with Nvidia sent shockwaves across the business world.
|
|
|
|
Anjney Midha, a former Andreessen Horowitz general partner, is in discussions to secure more than $10 billion in capital for a coalition connected to his new venture, AMP, according to someone familiar with the deal. The coalition, which includes both strategic and financial partners, aims to build infrastructure that could deliver 1 gigawatt of AI data center capacity. Such a plan is ambitious. It couldn’t be learned how the venture will realize that goal. The coalition will also include a foundation to support open source model development in the world. The discussions haven’t previously been reported. In October, Midha told Andreessen Horowitz staff that he was setting up an outside venture called AMP to “provide compute and capital to frontier AI teams.” Midha joined the firm two years ago from social app
Discord and was an early personal investor in Anthropic. When Midha was full-time at Andreessen, he helped the firm’s startups gain access to highly sought-after graphics processing units. He remains a venture partner at the firm.
|
|
|
|
Waymo on Tuesday provided further details about its decision on Saturday to temporarily pause its robotaxi service in San Francisco amid a citywide power outage that caused its driverless cars to stall traffic. The company said it made the decision so its vehicles wouldn’t obstruct first responders by idling at dark traffic signals, which its cars are trained to treat as four-way stops. It resumed service Sunday. The Google-owned business said it planned to prevent similar scenarios in the future by rolling out updates that give its vehicles more context about regional power outages so they can make decisions at dark intersections more decisively. Besides updating its software, the company also says it is updating its emergency response protocols, coordinating more closely with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office on preparedness planning, and expanding its
first-responder training to incorporate lessons from the outage.
|
|
|
|
Private equity firms sold $3.5 billion of general partner stakes through the end of October, on pace to set a record, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing data from PitchBook. The GP stakes give outside investors a slice of investment firms’ profits and management fees. More firms plan to try to sell such stakes in the coming years, the Journal reported, citing survey data. The deals are usually privately negotiated and complex, limiting their frequency. The fundraising helps PE firms as they grapple with dry spells of portfolio company sales and public offerings, limiting how much they can return back to limited partners.
|
|
|
|
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said Tuesday it will start offering users up to 20% annualized yield on USD1, the stablecoin issued by President Donald Trump’s family crypto venture World Liberty Financial. The promotion on Binance, set to last for a month, is designed to help drive usage of USD1. The market circulation of USD1 jumped to $2.9 billion on Wednesday from $2.7 billion on Tuesday, making it the 6th largest stablecoin in the world. “Nothing says Christmas like real-world adoption. USD1 running a
massive holiday campaign on Binance is just the beginning,” Donald Trump Jr., co-founder of World Liberty, said in a tweet. Stablecoins are supposed to invest in safe assets to maintain their 1 to 1 peg against the dollar. Those assets pay roughly 3.6% today, meaning Binance or World Liberty Financial or both are losing money on the promotion. So far, most of USD1’s growth was driven by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund MGX’s decision in May to use the stablecoin to pay for its $2 billion investment in Binance. The move has led to criticisms, such as by Senator Elizabeth Warren, that it boosted the fortune of Trump’s family business as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao successfully lobbied for a pardon. Binance has denied such claims.
|
|
|
|
Nvidia has stopped testing an Intel process to manufacture its chips, Reuters reported, driving Intel’s shares down. Nvidia was recently testing an Intel production process known as 18A but decided to stop moving forward with the efforts, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The report didn’t say why Nvidia paused the testing. The two chipmakers have forged closer ties this year. Nvidia in September invested $5 billion in Intel and said they were collaborating on custom data centers chips. Representatives for Intel and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An Intel spokesperson told Reuters its 18A manufacturing technologies are “progressing well,” and it “continues to see strong interest” for a newer
process called 14A.
|
|
|
|
| |
