Semiconductor startup Groq announced on Monday that it has secured $640 million in a Series D funding round led by Cisco Investments, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and BlackRock Private Equity Partners, among others. This funding elevates the company’s valuation to $2.8 billion.
Founded by a former Alphabet engineer, the Silicon Valley-based company focuses on developing AI inference chips—semiconductors designed to enhance processing speed and execute commands of pre-trained models efficiently.
In a bid to challenge Nvidia’s dominant role in the rapidly expanding AI chip market, Groq, alongside other startups, is making strides in this competitive field. Last year, Groq modified Meta Platforms’ large language model, LLaMA, to operate on its own chips rather than Nvidia’s, as Meta researchers originally utilized Nvidia’s chips for LLaMA.
Cloud service providers, striving to create their own AI products, are also exploring alternatives to Nvidia’s high-end processors due to the high demand and limited supply.
In 2021, Groq was valued at $1.1 billion following investments from Tiger Global Management and D1 Capital.
The company intends to use the latest funding to expand the capacity of its tokens-as-a-service (TaaS) offering and enhance the GroqCloud with new models and features. By the end of the first quarter of 2025, Groq plans to deploy over 108,000 Language Processing Units produced by Global Foundries.
Additionally, Groq has appointed Stuart Pann, a former senior executive at Intel and HP Inc., as its Chief Operating Officer, and Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has joined as the company’s newest technical adviser.
