Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on October 6 that, according to CNBC and the Financial Times, Groq was sued in the Delaware Court of Chancery in the United States on Tuesday local time. The lawsuit alleges that Groq sacrificed minority shareholders’ interests in a nonexclusive licensing deal with NVIDIA that resembled an acquisition.
The plaintiffs, Joshua Rubin and Benjamin Serebrin, were Groq employees but left before the deal with NVIDIA. Both still hold shares in Groq.
According to disclosed court filings, the $20 billion deal between Groq and NVIDIA (approximately 134.289 billion yuan at current exchange rates, according to IT Home) has 2 parts: $17 billion is shared among all shareholders, while another $3 billion was allocated as restricted NVIDIA shares to Groq employees who moved to NVIDIA.
The plaintiffs argue that Groq’s board had serious conflicts of interest, failed to fulfill its legal duty to secure the best price and deal structure for all shareholders, and did not allow some shareholders to vote on the deal.
Some shareholders’ shares were cashed out at a “low price” because the deal “did not account for the future appreciation potential of Groq’s technology or its synergies with NVIDIA,” while management received large gains. Furthermore, because the deal was not a true acquisition, the $17 billion licensing fee was treated as taxable income for Groq.