Groq is seeking $650 million in new funding from existing investors, following its December 2025 $20 billion "not-acqui-hire" agreement with Nvidia. The deal saw senior Groq employees depart for Nvidia while licensing the startup's hardware technology, providing cash payouts without a full acquisition.

Groq now shifts focus to AI inference processing after prompts, a service currently in higher demand than model training. The company aims to grow its inference cloud business that helps developers and enterprises host AI applications, capitalizing on the need for refined AI responses in real-world applications.

The new funding round has guaranteed backing from investors Disruptive and Infinitium, who will fill any gaps if other existing investors pass on their pro-rata shares. The pivot comes under interim CEO Adam Winter and CFO Matt Eng as Groq establishes itself in the competitive AI inference market.