Groq more than doubles valuation to $6.9 billion as investors bet on AI chips

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(Reuters) – Chip startup Groq said on Wednesday it has raised $750 million, more than doubling its valuation to $6.9 billion in just over a year as Wall Street bets big on the hardware that powers artificial intelligence technology.

Groq, founded by a former Alphabet engineer, is among a long list of new chip players looking to capitalize on hundreds of millions of dollars in investments on AI infrastructure.

Its last funding round was in August last year, when it raised $640 million that brought its valuation to $2.8 billion.

The round announced on Wednesday was led by Disruptive, with significant investments from Blackrock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and a large U.S.-based West Coast mutual fund manager, Groq said.

Disruptive, a Dallas-based growth investment firm that has backed companies such as Palantir and Spotify, has invested nearly $350 million in Groq, the startup said.

The round also included Samsung, Cisco, D1, Altimeter, 1789 Capital and Infinitum.

Groq is known for producing AI inference chips that optimize pre-trained models.

The industry is increasingly shifting focus to hardware designed for inference, from the training-centric chips that characterized the early period of AI development.

Leading AI chipmaker Nvidia, as well as smaller rival AMD, are both gearing up to offer more inference focused chips.

“Inference is defining this era of AI, and we’re building the American infrastructure that delivers it with high speed and low cost,” Jonathan Ross, Groq founder and CEO, said.

Groq also secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia in February to expand the delivery of its advanced AI chips to the country.

The startup has told investors that the contracts in Saudi Arabia will help bring in about $500 million in revenue this year, according to earlier media reports.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)