AI Chip Startup Groq Raises $640 Million to Challenge Nvidia

Groq's valuation soars to $2.8 billion as it aims to disrupt the AI chip market with faster, cost-effective inference solutions.

Groq's funding round was led by Blackrock, with participation from Neuberger Berman, Cisco, and Samsung Catalyst Fund.
The startup's AI chips, designed for inference, claim to be significantly faster and more energy-efficient than Nvidia's GPUs.
Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has joined Groq as a technical advisor, bolstering its credibility in the industry.
GroqCloud, the company's developer platform, has attracted over 350,000 developers, although most are currently using the service for free.
Groq faces stiff competition from both established giants like Nvidia and other AI chip startups such as Cerebras and SambaNova.