Groq seeks $500 million to fulfil Saudi orders - Report
AI inference leader eyes $6 billion valuation and $500M raise
#USA #Saudi #infrastructure - AI inference leader Groq is plans to raise between $300 million and $500 million to fulfill contracts with Saudi Arabia, according to a report by The Information quoting anonymous informed sources. The company opened its first GroqCloud region outside the USA in Dammam, Saudi Arabia in February and secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Aramco Digital to further expand the data centre. Groq expects to generate approximately $500 million in revenue this year from its data centre business in the Kingdom. Groq seeks a new valuation of $6 billion in its next funding round, which would be more than double the $2.8 billion valuation following its August 2023 Series D funding round.
SO WHAT? - Groq is expanding its data centre services rapidly, opening first data center in Europe located in Helinksi, Finland this week. The company decided to build the data centre four weeks ago and expects it to be serving traffic during the next few days. This follows just five months after the company opened its first international data centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi facility, built in partnership with Aramco Digital, is targeted to deploy one billion tokens-per-second of capacity, which could provide compute for some 4 billion people globally.
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AI inference leader Groq is plans to raise between $300 million and $500 million to fulfill contracts with Saudi Arabia, according to a report by The Information quoting anonymous informed sources. The company, which is already backed by Cisco Investments, BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Samsung Catalyst Fund, is seeking a valuation of $6 billion.
Groq specialises in AI inference chips that optimise speed and execute commands of pre-trained AI models, differentiating from training-focused competitors.
Groq operates EMEA's largest AI compute centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, initially powered by 19,000 language processing units through partnership with Aramco Digital.
The company's GroqCloud region in Saudi Arabia represents the country’s first public cloud region launched specifically to serve international users beyond the Middle East market.
CEO Jonathan Ross announced at LEAP 2025 conference that the data centre now offers the world's lowest cost for AI model inferencing via the GroqCloud service.
The Saudi infrastructure hub significantly reduces latency for GroqCloud users throughout the Middle East and broader regional market.
Following the February Groq data centre opening in Saudi Arabia, Aramco confirmed $1.5 billion investment for expansion.
ZOOM OUT -- The Groq AI inference data centre in Saudi Arabia has been planned as a global venture, to both impact AI usage far beyond the country’s borders and position the Kingdom at the centre of it all. Scaling to 25 million tokens-per-second of compute by the end of March, the data centre is expected to be the world’s largest infrastructure cluster dedicated to AI. Aramco’s backing will allow Groq to scale very fast, providing services to clients across EMEA and perhaps some other parts of Asia too. If Groq is able to meet its ultimate goal of deploying one billion tokens-per-second of capacity - which will take some doing - this could provide compute for 4 billion people globally.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Read more about Groq in Saudi Arabia:
Groq opens EMEA's largest AI compute centre in KSA (Middle East AI News)
Groq ships to Saudi to for huge AI infrastructure cluster (Middle East AI News)
Groq to offer on-demand services from Saudi Arabia (Middle East AI News)