Ai Chip Start-Up Groq Nears Us$600 Million Funding Deal

Artificial intelligence chip start-up Groq is set to raise about US$600 million in a new funding round that gives the company a roughly US$6 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the talks.

The latest round is being led by the venture capital firm Disruptive, which committed more than US$300 million to the deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Representatives for Disruptive and Groq declined to comment.

The fundraising is still being finalised, and the details could change. The Information on Tuesday reported that Groq had slashed more than US$1 billion off its revenue projections for 2025. The website also previously reported some details of the funding round.

One of the people familiar with the matter said that Groq expected the revenue that was trimmed from its projections this year to be realised in 2026 instead. The start-up declined to comment on its sales.

The funding round was bigger than what Groq was initially planning to raise, the people said. It brings the start-up’s total cash haul to more than US$2 billion and doubles its valuation. Last year, the company raised US$640 million in a deal led by BlackRock funds.

The start-up designs semiconductors and software for AI, and aims to take on Nvidia, which has seen the AI boom drive its market capitalisation to more than US$4 trillion.

Groq’s technology lets customers run AI models from the data centre of their choice, and it is spending money to build out a global network so that customers get quick answers to their queries. The company recently announced its first European data centre deal in Finland.

Founded in 2012, Dallas-based VC Disruptive has invested in companies including Palantir Technologies and Airbnb.