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NVIDIA Takes Poolside's Model Factory and 109 Employees for $6B in Licensing Plus $1B at a $12B Pre-Money, Founders Stay Behind
Announced August 20 and covered in AINews on August 21, the structure is a reverse-acquihire: a non-exclusive license worth $6B, a $1B investment at $12B pre-money, and most of the technical staff moving to NVIDIA while the founders remain at Poolside. The founders say they lost a booked 40,000 GB300 cluster after failing to close a $2B round in time, and note fewer than 115 engineers and researchers built the model in the first place. Poolside Infrastructure Company, spun out in January 2026, keeps building its 1.2GW Texas datacenter with a stated path to 7GW.
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