NVIDIA is paying about $6 billion to license technology from the AI startup Poolside and hire most of its engineers, plus $1 billion invested in the company, according to Wall Street Journal reporting. The aim is to strengthen NVIDIA's own openly published Nemotron models against rival open models from Chinese labs. Separate reports say NVIDIA will raise prices on its next-generation systems by roughly 15 to 17 percent early next year after supplier cost increases.
What changed
NVIDIA sold chips and made minority AI investments rather than building its own competing model business.
What it unlocks
NVIDIA can absorb its own chip output into internal model development if outside demand softens, and can push its open-weight Nemotron models as an alternative to Chinese open models.
- $6 billion to license Poolside tech
- $1 billion investment at $12bn valuation
- GPU prices up ~15-17% early 2027
Sources