Poolside AI, the artificial intelligence model-building startup, has struck a non-exclusive licensing deal with Nvidia for $6 billion, plus a $1 billion investment in Poolside at a $12 billion pre-money valuation, according to a letter to investors obtained by Newcomer. As part of the deal 109 Poolside employees are getting offers to leave the startup to join Nvidia. The deal echoes the acquihires that other AI startups have struck in the last few years with tech giants — though this one has a major twist: Unlike Scale-Meta, Nvidia-Groq and Character AI-Google where the founders jumped ship, Poolside’s founders will be staying with the startup. “This is not an acquisition and it is not an acquihire,” the founders wrote in the note obtained by Newcomer.