Groq Seeks $650 Million for Inference Cloud Expansion After $20 Billion Nvidia Deal
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · May 29
Groq Seeks $650 Million for Inference Cloud Expansion After $20 Billion Nvidia Deal
2 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · May 29
$650 million is the new funding Groq is seeking from existing investors to expand its inference neocloud business built on its own AI chips and systems.
Inference demand is driving the push, as Groq targets developers and enterprises running AI applications after prompts are processed rather than model training workloads.
Disruptive and Infinitium have agreed to backstop the round, making the raise effectively assured even if other current investors decline their pro-rata allocations.
The fundraising follows Groq's December agreement with Nvidia, reportedly valued at $20 billion, which licensed Groq hardware technology to Nvidia and sent some senior Groq employees to the chipmaker.
Adam Winter and Matt Eng are steering the new direction as interim CEO and CFO, underscoring Groq's pivot from a headline Nvidia transaction toward building an inference-focused cloud business.
After licensing its core tech to Nvidia, can Groq's cloud business truly out-compete the very giant it just empowered?
As regulators probe the Nvidia deal, could this 'reverse acqui-hire' become the new blueprint for big tech acquisitions?