On August 23, 2026, NVIDIA unveiled a strategic partnership with AI startup Poolside. As part of this deal, NVIDIA acquired a non-exclusive license to Poolside's model development system, dubbed 'Model Factory,' for a hefty sum of $6 billion. Moreover, NVIDIA extended job offers to 109 employees who played a pivotal role in developing the Laguna model. Additionally, NVIDIA committed to investing an extra $100 million in Poolside, valuing the startup at a pre-investment worth of $12 billion. Despite this investment, Poolside will maintain its operational independence, with its three co-founders retaining their leadership roles.

In this transaction, the $6 billion technology licensing fee is earmarked for distribution to Poolside's existing investors by the end of 2027. Established in 2023, Poolside specializes in crafting AI models and agents specifically designed for software engineering and programming scenarios. Notably, some weights of its Laguna series models have already been made open-source.

NVIDIA intends to capitalize on Poolside's technological prowess and talent pool to bolster its own open-weight model development efforts. The goal is to create a U.S.-based model that can go toe-to-toe with Chinese AI models like DeepSeek. In recent years, NVIDIA has been strategically diversifying its portfolio, expanding beyond its traditional role as an AI chip supplier to venture into the model and software domains. This transaction marks one of NVIDIA's significant strides in the open-weight AI model arena, signaling its ambition to lead in this rapidly evolving field.