After Nvidia’s $20B not-acqui-hire, AI chip startup Groq reportedly raising $650M

在英伟达 200 亿美元的“非收购式雇佣”之后，AI 芯片初创公司 Groq 据悉正筹集 6.5 亿美元

Groq is looking to raise $650 million in new funding from existing investors, sources tell Axios, as it leans into its inference neocloud business that relies on its homegrown AI chip and systems. 据 Axios 消息来源透露，AI 芯片初创公司 Groq 正寻求从现有投资者处筹集 6.5 亿美元的新资金，以全力投入其依赖自研 AI 芯片和系统的推理“新云”（neocloud）业务。

In December, Groq struck one of those not-an-acquisition agreements with Nvidia for a reported $20 billion, which involved the departure of some top-level senior Groq employees to the chip giant and the licensing of Groq’s hardware technology to Nvidia. 去年 12 月，Groq 与英伟达达成了一项价值约 200 亿美元的“非收购式协议”。该协议涉及 Groq 部分高层员工离职加入这家芯片巨头，并将 Groq 的硬件技术授权给英伟达使用。

That deal was good news for the startup’s investors, who got paid out in cash with what would have been Nvidia’s largest purchase, if the deal was a full-acquisition, Axios reports. 据 Axios 报道，这笔交易对该初创公司的投资者来说是个好消息，他们获得了现金回报。如果这笔交易是一次全面收购，它本将成为英伟达有史以来最大规模的收购案。

Now these investors have been asked to pony up and back the company’s plans to grow its inference cloud business, which lets developers and enterprises host their inference-hungry apps. 现在，这些投资者被要求继续注资，以支持该公司发展其推理云业务的计划，该业务旨在让开发者和企业能够托管其对推理需求巨大的应用程序。

Inference is the processing that happens after an AI prompt and is currently a much bigger need in the AI world than model training. 推理是指 AI 在接收提示词（prompt）后进行的计算处理过程，目前在 AI 领域，其需求量远大于模型训练。

The new direction is led right now by Groq’s interim CEO and CFO, Adam Winter and Matt Eng, respectively. 目前，这一新方向由 Groq 的临时首席执行官 Adam Winter 和首席财务官 Matt Eng 共同领导。

In some ways, the $650 million in funding is guaranteed. Axios reports that Groq’s backers Disruptive and Infinitium have agreed to fill the round should other existing investors not want their pro-rata shares. 在某种程度上，这 6.5 亿美元的融资已得到保障。据 Axios 报道，Groq 的支持者 Disruptive 和 Infinitium 已同意，如果其他现有投资者不愿行使按比例认购的份额，他们将负责补足本轮融资。