Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler invested $3 million in private artificial intelligence startup Groq just before striking a lucrative business deal with Nvidia, according to a report. government document obtained by NOTUS.
Loeffler invested in Groq in October 2025, in a $750 million investment financing cycle for the California-based company that designs some of the most advanced AI-driven chip technologies in the world.
A few weeks later, in December, Groq struck a $20 billion cash deal to license its AI technology to Nvidia, the computer chip manufacturing giant and world leader. most precious company by market capitalization.
Nvidia also work closely with the president Donald Trump and his administration amid negotiations over the company’s ability to export chips to China.
THE financial disclosure reviewed by NOTUS said Loeffler invested the $3 million in private Groq stock through a limited liability company called Descante Capital LLC. Descending capital would have serves as the holding company for Loeffler’s primary residence in Georgia, a$10.5 million mansion also called Descante.
Caitlin O’Dea, a spokesperson for the Small Business Administration, told NOTUS that Loeffler does not manage its own investments “in accordance with its SBA ethics agreement.”
O’Dea did not provide additional details on the nature of the investments or whether Loeffler was aware of the Nvidia-Groq deal.
“The Administrator’s portfolio is managed independently, without her direction or input. She complies with all ethical and legal requirements,” O’Dea added in another statement responding to follow-up questions from NOTUS.
One of Washington’s leading ethics reformers expressed skepticism.
“She’s playing with the market in what appear to be completely serendipitous opportunities, which raises valid suspicions. Kelly Loeffler has been embroiled in scandal after scandal since she entered public life,” Craig Holman, government funding and election campaign ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, told NOTUS.
For Holman, Nvidia’s close relationship with Trump makes this investment worth watching.
“She’s taking a stake in this private company and suddenly had a big opportunity to enrich herself personally through this deal with Nvidia. She’s in the administration, so she could have access to potential inside information about this deal,” Holman added.
The intersection of Loeffler’s personal finance and public service has previously is subject to careful scrutiny.
Loeffler served a single term in the Senate after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp appointed her to the vacant state seat in 2019.
During her tenure, Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, a billionaire businessman who is chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sold $20 million worth of stock 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 against Loeffler, who has denied any wrongdoing. The ethics committee, which has not officially sanctioned anyone over the past 19 years, has cleared Loeffler a few months later. The Justice Department opened separately — then farmwithout 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.
In 2025, Loeffler appeared regularly on the conservative television channel Newsmax in her capacity as administrator of the Small Business Administration. Fortune reported that Loeffler owned millions of dollars in stock in Newsmax’s parent company, a potential financial conflict she has not publicly disclosed during her television appearances.
Congress is actively considering legislation that would prohibit federal lawmakers – and potentially executive branch officials – from buying, selling and even holding individual stocks due to ongoing concerns over insider trading, conflicts of interest And routine violations of the current Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
But Congress has yet to pass any such bill, and officials such as Loeffler can still buy and sell stocks with limited restrictions. Nvidia stock, which is publicly traded, has proved particularly popular with several prominent members of Congress.
Since Trump’s return to power last year, Nvidia has courted the president and his administration. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is a top Trump donor. East Wing Ballroom project and continually touted Trump’s abilities and work ethic during multiple visits with the president and top Republicans. Meanwhile, Nvidia secured lucrative government contracts and struck a beneficial trade policy deal to sell AI chips to China.
Groq, which is unrelated to Elon Musk’s AI model Grok, sells chips designed from the ground up to work specifically with AI models and run faster, making the company an attractive player. acquisition target for Nvidia.
Groq did not respond to repeated requests from NOTUS.
Alexandros Kazimirov, a researcher at the American Antitrust Institute, told NOTUS that even if this type of “Quasi-mergers” are a positive sign for startups in the short term, it could 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 get ahead of Groq,” he said. “But the fact that it structured its acquisition as a quasi-merger indicates that there were, at the very least, competitive concerns.”