Groq secures $350 million to accelerate its shift to AI neocloud services

Groq has closed a $350 million round that places its post-licensing valuation at $3.5 billion, down from $6.9 billion a few months earlier. The round was spearheaded by Disruptive and includes Nvidia as an investor, reflecting Groq’s transition from an AI-chip maker to a neocloud operator that runs Nvidia hardware for AI inference and training. After losing its core engineering team, the company pivoted to a cloud and data-center model, now running 13 facilities across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

It aims to boost power usage from 54 megawatts to more than 200 megawatts by 2027, serving over 6 million developers and AI-focused enterprises. The new funds will finance larger Nvidia-accelerated clusters, positioning Groq as a competitor in the emerging AI inference cloud market. While demand for inference is rising, analysts note the profitability of such capital-intensive neoclouds remains uncertain.