Prime Highlight
- Nvidia has struck a $900M deal to acquire Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar and several employees while licensing the startup’s networking technology.
- Enfabrica’s system can connect over 100,000 GPUs into a single computing unit, boosting Nvidia’s data center and AI infrastructure capabilities.
Key Facts
- The transaction follows Nvidia’s earlier investment in Enfabrica’s $125M Series B round and its later $115M raise at a $600M valuation.
- Nvidia also announced a $5B stake in Intel and a $700M investment in U.K. data center startup Nscale in the same week.
Background
Nvidia has announced a deal worth over $900 million to bring Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar and several employees into the company while also licensing the startup’s technology. The cash-and-stock transaction closed last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2019, Enfabrica developed networking technology that can connect over 100,000 GPUs into a single computing system. The advancement could help Nvidia deliver integrated solutions around its chips, making massive GPU clusters function as one machine.
Since the launch of OpenAI ChatGPT in 2022, Nvidia GPUs have been used to enable the artificial intelligence boom. As the market requires high-performance systems, the company is currently seeking to improve its competitiveness in the field of networking and data center solutions.
The deal mirrors similar “acquihire” moves by major tech firms. Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all secured AI talent through licensing arrangements that avoid regulatory hurdles tied to traditional acquisitions. Meta’s $14.3 billion deal with Scale AI’s founder and Google’s $2.4 billion Windsurf deal are among the largest examples.
Nvidia had previously invested in Enfabrica as part of its $125 million Series B round in 2023. Later that year, Enfabrica raised $115 million at a valuation of about $600 million from investors including Samsung, Cisco, and Arm.
The move comes during a busy week for Nvidia, which also announced a $5 billion stake in Intel and a $700 million investment in U.K. data center startup Nscale.
