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Today’s Menu

• Nvidia Plays Defense With $20B Groq Deal

• BitMine Starts Staking Its $12B Ethereum Treasury

Markets

TODAY IN AI

Nvidia Plays Defense With $20B Groq Deal

Nvidia just struck a licensing deal reportedly worth $20 billion with AI chip startup Groq, with the company's CEO and president also joining the chip giant to help integrate and scale the tech.

The deal targets Groq's LPU chips, which specialize in running AI models quickly and cheaply, claiming 10x speed at a fraction of GPU energy use. Groq was valued at $6.9 billion just three months ago after raising $750 million from investors like BlackRock, Samsung, and Cisco.

Groq CEO Jonathan Ross and President Sunny Madra will join Nvidia as the startup continues independently under CFO Simon Edwards. Ross previously helped create Google's TPU chips before founding Groq in 2016, with the $20 billion deal becoming the largest in Nvidia's history.

Groq's Ross left Google after helping create the TPU chips that now compete directly with Nvidia's GPUs. A decade later, Nvidia is bringing him back into the fold. As custom silicon from Google and Amazon chip away at its lead, Nvidia seems to be playing defense by stockpiling the talent behind it.

When you pay $20 billion for chips that run 10x faster than yours at lower energy costs, that's not expansion. That's protecting market position.

TODAY IN CRYPTO

BitMine Starts Staking Its $12B Ethereum Treasury

BitMine just started staking its Ethereum. The largest corporate ETH holder deposited 74,880 ETH worth $227 million into Ethereum's staking contracts on Friday. That's just 1.8% of BitMine's 4.07 million ETH holdings, currently valued over $12 billion.

If BitMine stakes its entire treasury at the current 3.12% APY, it would generate roughly 126,800 ETH annually, worth $385 million at current prices. That turns BitMine from a passive holder into a yield-bearing vehicle tied to Ethereum's consensus layer.

BitMine's goal: acquire and stake 5% of Ethereum's total supply. The company is building the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), launching in early 2026. BitMine Chair Tom Lee called it the "best-in-class solution offering secure staking infrastructure."

The strategy introduces new risks. Staked ETH can't be liquidated immediately. Validators must pass through an exit queue. That delays access to capital during volatile markets. In a liquidity crunch, BitMine could be exposed to price swings a non-staking treasury would avoid.

Sharplink Gaming's co-CEO predicts Ethereum's TVL could increase tenfold in 2026 as institutions expand participation. Stablecoins are the key driver, with the market potentially hitting $500 billion by end of 2026.

BitMine staking its treasury validates that thesis. Institutions aren't just holding ETH anymore. They're deploying it as productive capital. The tradeoff: yield versus liquidity. BitMine just made its bet.

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Until next time,

Damon James