AI chip startup Groq announced on Wednesday that it has raised 750 million dollars in fresh funding, bringing its post-money valuation to 6.9 billion dollars.
This latest round exceeded earlier expectations. In July, reports suggested the company was preparing to raise about 600 million dollars at a valuation close to 6 billion dollars.
The new funding comes after Groq raised 640 million dollars in August 2024 at a 2.8 billion dollar valuation. With this, the company’s valuation has more than doubled in just over a year. According to estimates, Groq has now raised more than 3 billion dollars to date.
Groq has drawn significant attention in the technology sector because it is challenging Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips. Unlike traditional GPUs, which are widely used to power AI systems, Groq has introduced LPUs, or language processing units. The company describes its hardware as an inference engine, designed to run AI models with greater speed and efficiency.
Its products are aimed at both developers and enterprises. Groq offers them as a cloud service and as on-premises hardware clusters. The on-premises option consists of server racks equipped with integrated hardware and software nodes. Both setups can run open versions of widely used AI models from organisations such as Meta, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral, Google and OpenAI. Groq claims its technology delivers equal or better AI performance at a much lower cost than alternatives.
Jonathan Ross, founder of Groq, brings deep expertise to the company’s mission. Ross previously worked at Google, where he was involved in developing the Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU, a specialised processor built for machine learning. The TPU was introduced in 2016, the same year Groq came out of stealth. Today, TPUs continue to support Google Cloud’s AI services.
The new investment round was led by the firm Disruptive, with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and others. Existing investors such as Samsung, Cisco, D1 and Altimeter also took part in the round.
With this funding, Groq has strengthened its position in the competitive AI hardware market and reinforced its push to offer alternatives to Nvidia’s dominance.
Also read: Viksit Workforce for a Viksit Bharat
Do Follow: The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News LinkedIn Account | The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News Facebook | The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News Youtube | The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News Twitter |The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News Whatsapp Channel | The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News Instagram
About us:
The Mainstream formerly known as CIO News is a premier platform dedicated to delivering latest news, updates, and insights from the tech industry. With its strong foundation of intellectual property and thought leadership, the platform is well-positioned to stay ahead of the curve and lead conversations about how technology shapes our world. From its early days as CIO News to its rebranding as The Mainstream on November 28, 2024, it has been expanding its global reach, targeting key markets in the Middle East & Africa, ASEAN, the USA, and the UK. The Mainstream is a vision to put technology at the center of every conversation, inspiring professionals and organizations to embrace the future of tech.
