AI Chipmaker Groq Raises $650M After Nvidia Deal
On Monday, Groq, an AI chip manufacturer, revealed it has secured $650 million in funding, roughly six months following Nvidia's non-exclusive licensing agreement for Groq's technology. Nvidia also recruited Groq's founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, along with president Sunny Madra and other team members. The company's previous valuation stood at $6.9 billion after a $750 million funding round in September. Groq, co-founded by Ross and Doug Wightman, who remains CEO, created a language processing unit (LPU) for inference, now under Nvidia's ownership, which introduced the Nvidia Groq 3 LPX system in March. Groq has shifted focus to its neocloud operations, boasting 13 data centers and serving over five million developers, while also appointing Alan Rice as COO, Sinclair Schuller as CTO, and Rakesh Malhotra as CPO.
Key facts
- Groq raised $650 million in a new funding round.
- The raise comes six months after Nvidia signed a licensing deal and hired Groq's founder and president.
- Groq was last valued at $6.9 billion after a $750 million round in September.
- Founder Jonathan Ross helped create Google's Tensor Processing Unit.
- Doug Wightman stayed as CEO after the Nvidia deal.
- Groq's LPU IP is now owned by Nvidia, which announced its own hardware cluster.
- Groq pivoted to its neocloud business, now with 13 data centers globally.
- New executives include Alan Rice (COO), Sinclair Schuller (CTO), and Rakesh Malhotra (CPO).
Entities
Artists
- Jonathan Ross
Institutions
- Groq
- Nvidia
- Definitive Intelligence
- xAI
- Meta
- U.S. Navy
- Apprenda
- Nuvalence
- EY
- Microsoft
- Scale AI
- Forbes
- Disruptive
- TechCrunch
- CoreWeave
- Lambda
- Nebius
- Anthropic
- Axios
- Infinitium
Locations
- North America
- Europe
- Middle East
- APAC
- Asia Pacific