Poolside strikes non-exclusive licensing deal with Nvidia, founders retain control with $1B pool

Nvidia entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Poolside AI for the startup’s model factory, alongside hiring 109 of its employees, according to a letter to investors cited by Eric Newcomer. The licensing component is valued at $6 billion, while Nvidia also committed a $1 billion investment in Poolside at a $12 billion pre-money valuation.

Poolside’s founders opted to remain with the company, retaining control despite the transaction. The deal is framed as neither an acquisition nor an acquihire, with the founders describing it as a strategic pivot rather than a dissolution of the original mission.

A separate entity, Poolside Infrastructure Company (PIC), was spun out in January 2026 to focus on scaling datacenter capacity. PIC is building a 1.2 GW datacenter in Texas and has appointed new leadership, including a CEO and CFO, as part of its expansion plans.

The transaction follows Poolside’s reported challenges in raising $2 billion within a six-week window to secure a 40,000 GB300 cluster, which did not close in time. The company cited capital, physical datacenter space, and contracted compute as critical constraints for scaling frontier model development.

Poolside’s founders indicated they are not yet prepared to disclose the updated company vision, but emphasized the strategic shift toward infrastructure and compute provisioning. The deal’s structure suggests a bifurcation of Poolside’s original model-building focus and a new emphasis on building and operating large-scale datacenter infrastructure.

The financial terms include substantial payouts for employees, with reports indicating that employees received offers worth $6 billion collectively, while founders retained a $1 billion stake. The founders described the arrangement as a rare 'reverse-execuhire,' where executives and employees receive significant compensation while the company pivots to a new direction.