--- title: "Nvidia to Pay $6 Billion for Poolside License and Poach Nearly the Entire Startup Team" description: "Nvidia will pay $6 billion for a license to Poolside's technologies and poach 109 of the startup's employees, investing an additional $1 billion in its business. The goal is to create an open AI model to compete with Chinese counterparts." date: 2026-08-25T00:03:44.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/nvidia-poolside-6-billion-license-ai-deal tags: [nvidia, poolside, ai, licensing-deal, generative-ai, china-ai, acquihire] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Nvidia to Pay $6 Billion for Poolside License and Poach Nearly the Entire Startup Team ![Nvidia logo against green glass surfaces, symbolizing the $6 billion Poolside licensing deal](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/25/nvidia-poolside-sdelka-6-mlrd-licenziya-ii/nvidia-poolside-sdelka-6-mlrd-licenziya-ii-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - Nvidia strikes a $6 billion deal with Poolside for a non-exclusive license to its LLM-building technologies and invests $1 billion in the remaining business, valued at $12 billion. - Nvidia poaches 109 Poolside employees, while the three founders remain at the company, and the deal is formally not an acquisition. - This is Nvidia's third deal under the "license + hiring without acquisition" scheme, following Groq ($20 billion) and Enfabrica ($900 million). - Nvidia's goal is to create an open AI model to compete with Chinese counterparts. ### The Deal in a Nutshell: $6 Billion for Technology and $1 Billion in the Business According to information based on a letter that Poolside sent to its investors and that was cited by media outlets (including the WSJ), Nvidia has struck a $6 billion deal with the startup Poolside. Under the agreement, the graphics accelerator maker obtains a license to the technologies that Poolside used to build large language models. In addition to the license, Nvidia has offered jobs to 109 of the startup's employees and committed to investing $1 billion in the remaining part of Poolside's business, whose market value was estimated at $12 billion. Nvidia's strategic goal in this project is to create an open AI model capable of competing with Chinese counterparts. ### Not an Acquisition, but a License: How the Structure Works A key condition, emphasized in the letter to investors, is that Nvidia's license is non-exclusive, and the three founders of Poolside will retain their positions at the company. The document states outright that the deal "is not an acquisition" and does not fall under transactions carried out to bolster the staff with talented engineers (so-called acquihires). The funds received from Nvidia are planned to be distributed among Poolside's investors by the end of next year. Because the license is non-exclusive, Poolside retains the right to grant access to its Model Factory system β€” the tool the startup uses to build neural networks β€” to other developers as well. ### Context: Groq and Enfabrica The Poolside deal is not an isolated case. Nvidia has already concluded similar arrangements under the same scheme: the tech giant buys a license to use the technologies, hires the employees, but does not fully acquire the company, which continues to exist. In May of this year, media reported that Nvidia paid $20 billion to Groq for the right to use its AI technologies and hired its leading engineers; Groq remained independent and raised $650 million in investment, and by the current month closed a funding round of $350 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion. According to a source, a $900 million agreement was signed with the startup Enfabrica under the same scheme. This approach allows large technology companies to gain access to valuable talent and cutting-edge technologies without a full acquisition, and also to avoid scrutiny by industry regulators that could follow a complete purchase. ### Contradictory Data The sources contain several inconsistencies that are important to keep in mind. First, the letter's text and the description of the scheme cite different numbers of such deals: on the one hand, it is stated that Nvidia "has already concluded two deals under this scheme" (before Poolside), while on the other, it says that "in each of the three cases" the graphics accelerator maker obtained non-exclusive licenses. This is consistent if Poolside is counted as the third deal, but the wording in the primary materials differs. Second, there is tension in the very characterization of the deal: on the one hand, the letter insists that this is "not an acquisition" and not an acquihire, while on the other, Nvidia is poaching 109 employees out of a total headcount of fewer than 115, which is functionally very close to poaching nearly the entire team. Earlier, one of Poolside's executives stated that fewer than 70 people worked directly on creating the company's AI model. Finally, the $20 billion figure for the Groq deal rests on May media reports rather than direct confirmation by the parties, which distinguishes it from the current Poolside deal, detailed in the letter to investors. ### Strategic Goal: Open AI Against China The main stated outcome of the deal, according to Nvidia, is the creation of an open AI model that is to compete with Chinese counterparts. Poolside started as a developer of an AI agent for generating software code, then moved into the data center space, and later released an open AI model built on Nvidia accelerators. It is precisely this trajectory and the accumulated Model Factory technology that make the startup an attractive target for licensing: Nvidia gains access to an advanced software stack without buying the entire company. ### What's Next for Poolside In the letter to investors, Poolside's management describes the financial context in which the company found itself: "For the past three and a half years we have been moving in the right direction in a race where capital requirements were growing rapidly. At the end of last year we had a six-week window to raise the $2 billion needed to pay for a cluster of 40,000 GB300 accelerators, which was supposed to come online in January. We didn't make it in time and the cluster went to someone else." The letter also notes that the company could have used a cluster of 10,000–20,000 accelerators to build a model capable of competing with leading solutions. Now, having received $6 billion for the license and $1 billion in investment, Poolside intends to distribute the funds among its investors by the end of next year, while maintaining its independence and non-exclusive access to its technologies. ## πŸ” Fact-Check Verification - [Nvidia to Pay $6 Billion for Poolside License and Poach Nearly the Entire Startup Team window-new](https://3dnews.ru/1147317/nvidia-zaplatit-6-mlrd-za-litsenziyu-poolside-i-peremanit-pochti-vsyu-komandu-startapa) - ДСтализация условий: $6 ΠΌΠ»Ρ€Π΄ лицСнзия, 109 сотрудников, $1 ΠΌΠ»Ρ€Π΄ инвСстиции, ΠΎΡ†Π΅Π½ΠΊΠ° $12 ΠΌΠ»Ρ€Π΄, нСэксклюзивная лицСнзия, Ρ‚Ρ€ΠΎΠ΅ основатСлСй ΠΎΡΡ‚Π°ΡŽΡ‚ΡΡ. - [WSJ: Nvidia to Spend $6 Billion Competing with DeepSeek and Kimi K3](https://forklog.com/news/ai/wsj-nvidia-potratit-6-mlrd-na-konkurentsiyu-s-deepseek-i-kimi-k3) - ΠŸΠΎΠ΄Ρ‚Π²Π΅Ρ€ΠΆΠ΄Π°Π΅Ρ‚ сумму $6 ΠΌΠ»Ρ€Π΄ ΠΈ ΡΡ‚Ρ€Π°Ρ‚Π΅Π³ΠΈΡ‡Π΅ΡΠΊΡƒΡŽ Ρ†Π΅Π»ΡŒ β€” конкурСнция с китайскими ИИ-модСлями (DeepSeek, Kimi K3). - [WSJ: Nvidia Strikes $6 Billion Deal to Counter AI Models from Chinese Companies](https://tass.ru/ekonomika/28036383) - НСзависимоС ΠΏΠΎΠ΄Ρ‚Π²Π΅Ρ€ΠΆΠ΄Π΅Π½ΠΈΠ΅ сдСлки Π½Π° $6 ΠΌΠ»Ρ€Π΄ со ссылкой Π½Π° WSJ ΠΈ Ρ†Π΅Π»ΠΈ Π±ΠΎΡ€ΡŒΠ±Ρ‹ с китайскими ИИ-модСлями. - [Nvidia Strikes $6 Billion Deal to Build a Rival to Chinese AI](https://www.finam.ru/publications/item/nvidia-zaklyuchila-sdelku-na-6-mlrd-dlya-sozdaniya-konkurenta-kitayskim-ii-20260823-1047/) - ΠŸΠΎΠ΄Ρ‚Π²Π΅Ρ€ΠΆΠ΄Π°Π΅Ρ‚ сумму ΠΈ Ρ†Π΅Π»ΡŒ создания ΠΊΠΎΠ½ΠΊΡƒΡ€Π΅Π½Ρ‚Π° китайским ИИ-Ρ€Π΅ΡˆΠ΅Π½ΠΈΡΠΌ. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: How much will Nvidia pay Poolside and what does it get? **A:** Nvidia will pay $6 billion for a non-exclusive license to Poolside's technologies (including the Model Factory system), offer jobs to 109 employees, and invest $1 billion in the startup's remaining business, valued at $12 billion. ### Q: Is this an acquisition of Poolside? **A:** No. The letter to investors states outright that the deal is not an acquisition and does not fall under acquihires; the three founders retain their positions, and the license is non-exclusive, so Poolside continues to exist and can grant access to its technologies to other developers. ### Q: How is this deal similar to Nvidia's arrangements with Groq and Enfabrica? **A:** In all three cases, Nvidia buys a non-exclusive license and hires employees, but does not acquire the company outright. Earlier, deals with Groq (reported at $20 billion) and Enfabrica ($900 million) were made under the same scheme. ### Q: What is Nvidia's strategic goal in this deal? **A:** Creating an open AI model capable of competing with Chinese counterparts, using Poolside's technologies and talent without a full acquisition of the startup.