Nvidia Struck a $20 Billion Deal With an AI Startup. Kelly Loeffler Made a Massive Investment Weeks Earlier.

Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler invested $3 million in the privately owned artificial intelligence startup Groq right before it reached a lucrative business deal with Nvidia, according to a government document obtained by NOTUS.

Loeffler invested in Groq in October 2025, during a $750 million funding round for the California-based company that designs some of the world’s most advanced AI-focused chip technology.

Weeks later, in December, Groq reached a $20 billion cash deal to license its AI technology to Nvidia, the computer chip manufacturing giant and the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.

Nvidia has likewise worked closely with President Donald Trump and his administration amid negotiations around the company’s ability to export chips to China.

The financial disclosure reviewed by NOTUS said Loeffler invested the $3 million in private stock shares of Groq through a limited liability company called Descante Capital LLC. Descante Capital reportedly serves as a holding company for Loeffler’s primary residence in Georgia, a$10.5 million mansion also named Descante.

Caitlin O’Dea, a spokesperson for the Small Business Administration, told NOTUS that Loeffler does not manage her own investments “pursuant to her SBA ethics agreement.”

O’Dea did not provide additional details about the nature of the investments or whether Loeffler had any previous knowledge of the Nvidia-Groq deal.

“The Administrator’s portfolio is independently managed without her direction or input. She abides by all ethical and legal requirements,” O’Dea added in another statement responding to follow-up questions from NOTUS.

One of Washington’s preeminent ethics reformers expressed scepticism.

“She’s playing with the market in what seems to be very coincidental opportunities, so this raises valid suspicions. Kelly Loeffler has been involved in scandal after scandal ever since she entered public life,” Craig Holman, government and campaign finance ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, told NOTUS.

For Holman, Nvidia’s close relationship with Trump makes this investment worthy of oversight.

“She’s taking a stake in this private company and suddenly got a great opportunity for personal enrichment through this deal with Nvidia. She’s on the inside of the administration, so she could have access to potential insider information about this deal,” Holman added.

The intersection of Loeffler’s personal finances and public service has previously faced scrutiny.

Loeffler served a single term in the Senate after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her to the state’s open seat in 2019.

During her term, Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, a billionaire businessman who serves as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sold $20 million worth of stocks after a closed-door congressional briefing in January 2020 — weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of American life.

The Senate Ethics Committee launched an insider-trading investigation into Loeffler, who denied wrongdoing. The ethics committee, which has not formally sanctioned anyone during the past 19 years, cleared Loeffler a few months later. The Department of Justice separately opened — then closed, without charges — a criminal investigation into Loeffler’s trades.

Loeffler lost her seat in a 2021 special election but returned to government service when Trump appointed her in early 2025.

During 2025, Loeffler regularly appeared on conservative television channel Newsmax in her capacity as Small Business Administration administrator. Fortune reported that Loeffler owned millions of dollars in stock in the parent company of Newsmax, a potential financial conflict she did not publicly disclose during her television appearances.

Congress is actively considering legislation that would ban federal lawmakers — and, potentially, executive branch officials — from buying, selling and even holding individual stocks because of ongoing concerns about insider trading, conflicts of interest and routine violations of the existing Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.

But Congress has yet to pass any such bill, and officials such as Loeffler may still buy and sell stock with limited restrictions. Nvidia stock, which is publicly traded, has proven particularly popular with several prominent members of Congress.

Since Trump returned to office last year, Nvidia has courted the president and his administration. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is a top donor for Trump’s East Wing ballroom project and has continuously touted Trump’s abilities and work ethic during multiple visits with the president and top Republicans. Meanwhile, Nvidia has obtained lucrative government contracts and landed a beneficial trade policy agreement to sell AI chips to China.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang autographs photos as he arrives to talk with the Senate Banking Committee Republicans in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Dec. 3, 2025. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP

Groq, which is unrelated to Elon Musk’s AI model Grok, sells chips designed from scratch to work specifically with AI models and operate with more speed, making the company an attractive acquisition target for Nvidia.

Groq did not respond to repeated inquiries from NOTUS.

Alexandros Kazimirov, a scholar at the American Antitrust Institute, told NOTUS that while these kinds of “quasi-mergers” are a positive sign for startups in the short term, it might create “a gradual erosion of trust ” for the small business environment in the future.

“It’s not necessarily that Nvidia was trying to neutralize or preempt Groq,” he said. “But the fact that it structured its acquisition as a quasi-merger indicates that — at the very least — there were competition-related worries.”