The AI chip startup Groq announced on 6 August that it had raised $640 million through a Series D funding round led by Cisco Investments, BlackRock Private Equity Partners, and Samsung Catalyst Funds, among others. This brings the company’s valuation to $2.8 billion. 

The company specialises in manufacturing AI interface chips, a type of semiconductor that optimises speed and executes commands based on pre-trained models. 

The company commented on the latest funding round: “Groq will use the funding to scale the capacity of its tokens-as-a-service (TaaS) offering and add new models and features to the GroqCloud.”

Many startups, including Groq have been trying vigorously to eat away Nvidia’s dominating position in the booming AI chip industry. 

Last year, Groq adapted Meta Platforms’ large language model, LLaMA, to operate on its proprietary chips instead of Nvidia’s. Meta initially developed LLaMA using Nvidia hardware. With cloud service providers eager to create their own AI solutions, there is a growing interest in alternatives to Nvidia’s high-demand, limited-supply processors.

Back in 2021, the company was valued at $1.1 billion after receiving funding from DI Capital and Tiger Global Management. 

The company is planning to deploy more than 108,000  Language Processing Units that are manufactured by Global Foundries by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

They have also appointed Stuart Pann, a former senior executive at HP Inc. and Intel, as the company’s chief operating officer. 

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