As covered by the AI Insider earlier this week, Groq — an artificial intelligence (AI) startup — has secured $640 million in new funding, signaling strong investor confidence in the company’s approach to AI chip technology. CEO Jonathan Ross recently shared insights into Groq’s strategy and plans for growth.
Ross stressed Groq’s focus on inference, the process of deploying trained AI models.
“We always knew that it would be my background. I actually started the Google TPU chip and we actually started with inference there,” he explained. This strategic direction stems from Ross’s understanding that while training is important, inference is where companies truly monetize AI: “You spend money to make the models, you make your money with inference.”
The new funding will enable Groq to significantly expand its chip production.
“We’re going to build out about 180,000 of our LPG chips or language processing units,” said Ross. This production scale puts Groq in a competitive position relative to industry giants.
Groq is also leveraging open-source AI models to drive innovation. Ross noted: “Groq actually wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for open source models.” He likened Meta’s LLaMA models to “the Linux of the generative age,” enabling companies to enter the AI space without building models from scratch.
As Groq continues to grow, it’s clear that the company is positioning itself as a key player in the evolving landscape of AI chip technology, with a laser focus on improving inference capabilities for the industry.
