According to CNBC, the new data center is located in Helsinki (France), operated in cooperation with Equinix - a global data infrastructure unit specializing in connecting cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. This move aims to take advantage of the cool climate and abundant renewable energy resources in Northern Europe, which are increasingly attracting many global AI businesses.
Groq (Artificial Intelligence chip startup) is currently valued at $2.8 billion and has received support from major investors such as Samsung and Cisco. Unlike Nvidia - the company that dominates AI model training by GPUs, Groq develops language processing chips (LPUs), focusing on the reasoning stage, which is the ability to produce direct results from trained AI models.
According to Groq, the LPUs will be installed in Equinix's data center, making it easy for businesses to access Groq's reasoning power through available cloud platforms.
The location of data centers in Europe is also in line with the orientation of many governments in the region on AI sovereignty. Accordingly, user data must be processed and stored internally to ensure access speed and safety factors.
Before expanding to Europe, Groq deployed the technology at data centers in the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, many competitors such as SambaNova, Cerebras, Ampere or Fractile are also entering the AI chip race to serve the reasoning.
