Groq secures $640 million in new funding round

The Silicon Valley-based semiconductor startup Groq announced on Monday the completion of a remarkable Series D funding round amounting to $640 million. Leading investors such as Cisco Investments, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and BlackRock Private Equity Partners significantly contributed to this success, resulting in Groq now being valued at a substantial $2.8 billion. Founded by a former Alphabet engineer, Groq specializes in the production of AI inference chips – semiconductors that ensure optimized speed and the execution of pre-configured models. While major companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) influence the market, numerous startups including Groq are striving to challenge Nvidia's dominant position in the burgeoning AI chip sector. Last year, Groq adapted Meta's large language model LLaMA to run on Groq's proprietary chips rather than Nvidia's – a remarkable breakthrough considering that Meta researchers originally developed the technology on Nvidia chips. Cloud service providers, who are feverishly working on developing their own AI products, are seeking alternatives to Nvidia's state-of-the-art processors as demand often exceeds available supply. Already in 2021, Groq was valued at $1.1 billion following a funding round led by Tiger Global Management and D1 Capital. The current funds are intended to support Groq in expanding the capacity of its Tokens-as-a-Service (TaaS) offering and adding new models and functions to the GroqCloud, according to the company. Additionally, Groq plans to deploy more than 108,000 Language Processing Units manufactured by Global Foundries by the end of the first quarter of 2025. The company also announced that Stuart Pann, a former senior executive at Intel and HP, will serve as Groq’s new Chief Operating Officer. Furthermore, Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has been appointed as the newest technical advisor.