Nvidia has entered into a major strategic deal with Groq, underscoring its growing focus on the rapidly expanding market for artificial intelligence inference. The agreement includes a significant financial investment and commercial collaboration aimed at accelerating deployment of AI inference systems.
Groq specialises in high-speed inference processors designed to run trained AI models efficiently, a segment seen as a key growth area as demand rises for real-time AI applications. Nvidia, already dominant in AI training hardware, is positioning itself to maintain influence as inference workloads scale across data centres and cloud services.
The structure of the deal allows Groq to operate as an independent company while relying on Nvidia’s capital, ecosystem, and market reach. Critics argue the arrangement may preserve the appearance of competition while reinforcing Nvidia’s broader control over the AI hardware supply chain.
Supporters of the partnership say it reflects pragmatic industry alignment, enabling faster innovation and wider adoption of inference technology. Analysts note that the deal highlights intensifying competition over AI infrastructure, with inference expected to become as commercially significant as model training in the coming years.
