AI chipmaker Groq raises $640M to meet rising demand for high-speed inference compute

August 5, 2024: Groq Raises $640M for High-Speed AI Inference - Groq Inc., an AI chipmaker founded by former Google engineer Jonathan Ross, raised $640 million in Series D funding, led by Blackrock, valuing the company at $2.8 billion. The funds will deploy over 100,000 LPUs into GroqCloud, supporting AI applications with models from Meta, OpenAI, and others. Groqs LPU Inference Engine set a speed record with Metas Llama 2 70B LLM, and Ross aims to democratize AI development with increased talent and resources.