Groq raises $650 million to scale its AI inference cloud business. Groq specializes in inference-only acceleration, distinct from generalist GPU cloud providers.
Groq has raised $650 million in new growth capital to accelerate expansion of its AI inference cloud. The round was led by Disruptive and Infinitum, with participation from existing investors choosing to reinvest in the company.
The capital will support expansion of Groq's global AI inference cloud and help the company scale toward 200 megawatts by the end of 2027. The company currently operates 13 data centers across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, serving more than five million developers and thousands of AI-native companies while processing trillions of AI tokens each week.
Groq's current momentum began in December 2025 with a non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA. At GTC, NVIDIA announced its next-generation LPX platform, which incorporates Groq's inference technology. Following these milestones, Groq's board and lead investors worked with management to sharpen the company's focus on building an AI inference cloud at scale. The new capital will accelerate the deployment of Groq's existing infrastructure with its latest inference technology, including NVIDIA's LPX system.
Groq has strengthened its leadership team as it scales its inference cloud business. The company is led by CEO Adam Winter and CFO Matt Eng, with Alex Davis of Disruptive serving as Chairman. Chief Operating Officer Alan Rice, who previously worked at xAI and Meta Datacenters following an earlier career in U.S. Navy nuclear submarine operations, has also joined the leadership team. Starting in July, Groq is appointing Sinclair Schuller as Chief Technology Officer and Rakesh Malhotra as Chief Product Officer. Schuller founded enterprise cloud platform Apprenda, later sold to Atos, and co-founded Nuvalence with Malhotra, which was acquired by EY in 2024.
Groq believes inference represents a larger long-term opportunity than training because running AI models in production is expected to require significantly more compute.
"Groq has spent years building the technology, infrastructure, and operational expertise required for the next phase of AI. Today, the company has a proven global platform, a world-class leadership team, and a clear strategy focused on one of the most important opportunities in technology: AI inference at scale. We believe that combination positions Groq to become a foundational layer of the AI economy," said Alex Davis, Groq Chairman and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Disruptive.
"We believe inference will become the largest infrastructure market in technology. As AI moves from experimentation to production, demand for reliable, cost-efficient inference will continue to grow exponentially. Groq has the rare combination of differentiated technology, operating expertise, and global scale required to capitalize on that opportunity," said John Yetimoglu, Groq Board Member and Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Infinitum.