Organisation
Groq
Designs "Language Processing Unit" chips aimed at fast, low-cost AI inference, an alternative to Nvidia GPUs for running rather than training models.
Groq is a US chip company, founded in 2016 by Jonathan Ross — who had helped build Google's tensor processing unit — that designs what it calls a Language Processing Unit, a processor built around a deterministic design and large on-chip memory and aimed specifically at fast, low-cost model inference rather than training. It raised $750m in September 2025 at a reported $6.9bn valuation on the back of surging demand for inference capacity. In December 2025 Nvidia announced a licensing agreement reported at around $20bn under which Ross and much of Groq's engineering leadership joined Nvidia while the company continued to operate independently.
- Category
- Compute, chips & infrastructure
- Founded
- 2016
- HQ
- Mountain View, US
- Funding
- ~$6.9bn valuation (2025); Nvidia struck a reported ~$20bn licensing deal in Dec 2025
- Key people
- Jonathan Ross
Featured in threads
Tracks
- Money & business 2
- Compute & infrastructure 2
- Courts & copyright 1
Former Groq engineers sue over Nvidia's $20bn licensing deal for the startup
The Delaware suit says Nvidia's deal split $17bn into a non-exclusive licence and $3bn into stock for staff who joined Nvidia, without a shareholder vote.
Courts & copyright · Money & business · Compute & infrastructure
Groq raises $350m and pivots from chips to an AI cloud business
The $3.5bn valuation is roughly half Groq's September 2025 peak; the company now runs Nvidia GPUs across 13 data centres rather than its own chips.
Money & business · Compute & infrastructure