Startups
Secretive semiconductor startup Groq raises $52M from Social Capital
Groq has raised $52.3 million of a $60 million round, per an SEC filing. Social Capital co-founder and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, who’s listed on the filing, has participated in the funding.
Presumably, Palihapitiya’s investment came from Social Capital; the firm, which has been experiencing a boatload of personnel changes as of late, led Groq’s $10 million investment in April 2017.
Groq is developing a tensor processing unit — which is an integrated circuit developed for machine learning specifically. There’s not much other info out there; the company doesn’t have much of a website or any promotional materials available for public viewing.
In addition to Palihapitiya, two other names are listed on the most recent filing. That’s the company’s CTO Jonathan Ross, who spent about five years as a hardware engineer at Google and co-founded the search giant’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which is responsible for its custom ML chip.
The other name is Douglas Wightman, a former software engineer at Google. His LinkedIn profile says he’s Groq’s CEO.
Palihapitiya has spoken publicly about the project before, telling CNBC last year that he was “really excited about Groq.”
“It’s too early to talk specifics, but we think what they’re building could become a fundamental building block for the next generation of computing,” he said.
The company has reportedly poached several people from Google’s TPU team.
-
Entertainment6 days ago
Earth’s mini moon could be a chunk of the big moon, scientists say
-
Entertainment6 days ago
The space station is leaking. Why it hasn’t imperiled the mission.
-
Entertainment5 days ago
‘Dune: Prophecy’ review: The Bene Gesserit shine in this sci-fi showstopper
-
Entertainment5 days ago
Black Friday 2024: The greatest early deals in Australia – live now
-
Entertainment3 days ago
How to watch ‘Smile 2’ at home: When is it streaming?
-
Entertainment3 days ago
‘Wicked’ review: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo aspire to movie musical magic
-
Entertainment2 days ago
A24 is selling chocolate now. But what would their films actually taste like?
-
Entertainment3 days ago
New teen video-viewing guidelines: What you should know