AI Tool Collection, June 26 news: In the field of artificial intelligence chips, an emerging company called Groq is rapidly rising and challenging the position of industry giant Nvidia. According to multiple sources, this AI chip company, founded in 2016 by former Google executive and one of the inventors of the TPU, Jonathan Ross, may be valued at as much as $2.5 billion in a new funding round led by BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset management companies.
Groq focuses on designing chips for inference, that is, processing artificial intelligence that has already been deployed, rather than training new models. The company claims that its chips—called "language processing units"—are more than ten times faster than traditional chips, while costing only one-tenth as much. This innovative technology has attracted a high degree of market attention.
The new funding has not yet been finalized, and the terms of the deal may change. According to Pitchbook data, this deal will more than double Groq's valuation; at the time, Groq raised $300 million in a 2021 funding round led by Tiger Global Management and D1 Capital Partners. The company has raised a total of $367 million to date.
Groq is not fighting alone in the highly competitive AI chip market. The company is in fierce competition with hardware inference companies such asSiMa.ai, Microsoft-backed Dmatrix, and Intel-backed Untether.AI, jointly competing for market share. It is worth noting that Nvidia briefly surpassed Microsoft and Apple last week to become the world's most valuable company, but then suffered a sharp sell-off. Meanwhile, another Nvidia competitor, Cerebras, has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO.
(Source:BusinessInsider）