AI chip startup Groq valued at $2.8 billion after latest funding round

Semiconductor startup Groq said on Monday it has raised $640 million in a Series D funding round led by Cisco Investments, Samsung Catalyst Fund and BlackRock Private Equity Partners, among others, bringing its valuation to $2.8 billion.

The Silicon Valley firm, founded by a former Alphabet engineer, specializes in producing AI inference chips – a type of semiconductor that optimizes speed and executes commands of pre-trained models.