After a $20B loan from Nvidia, AI chip startup Groq is reportedly raising $650M

Grok it wants to raise $650 million in new capital from existing ones, the sources said Axiosas it leans into its neocloud business that relies on its chip and AI systems.

In December, Groq entered into a non-purchase agreement with Nvidia 20 billion dollarswhich included the departure of Groq’s top staff to the chip giant and the licensing of Groq’s hardware technology to Nvidia. The deal was good news for the company’s founders, who were paid money that would have been Nvidia’s biggest purchase, had the deal been a full acquisition, Axios reports.

Now these investors have been asked to come and back the company’s plans to expand its cloud business, which allows developers and businesses to host their hungry applications. Inference is the processing that happens after the acceleration of AI and is currently more important in the world of AI than model training.

These new initiatives are being led by Groq’s CEO and CFO, Adam Winter and Matt Eng, respectively.

In some ways, the $650 million is guaranteed. Axios reports that Groq Disruptive and Infinitium’s backers have agreed to fill the round if other existing investors do not want their pro-rata shares.