Artificial intelligence chip and software startup Groq plans to establish more than 12 new data centers by the end of next year.

Based in Mountain View, California, Groq’s business focuses on AI inference, the computing through which users interact with large language AI models. Groq produces its own specialized chips and servers designed for the needs of AI inference but also offers inference computing on its proprietary chips via the cloud.

Most recently valued at $6.9B, the company has already deployed a dozen data centers so far in 2025 and aims to exceed that number in the year ahead, Groq CEO Jonathan Ross told The Wall Street Journal.

“Expect that [number] to grow rapidly,” Ross said.

Groq’s data center footprint is spread across the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Europe, and it has deployments in Asia in the works. The firm doesn't build its own data centers, instead deploying capacity at facilities owned by third-party colocation providers.

In North America, the colocation providers leasing space to Groq include data center REIT Equinix, DataBank and Bell Canada, according to Data Center Dynamics.

Groq’s planned data center expansion reflects a shift in demand from AI training toward inference that is already underway. Rather than huge campuses developed for training AI models, inference is more often deployed in smaller data centers near population centers.

Rising inference demand has fueled investor interest in Groq and given the startup “unicorn” status, meaning it is valued at more than $1B. The company says its processors, called language processing units, are capable of being produced and deployed faster with less power consumption than the graphics processing units produced by firms like Nvidia that are the primary engine of AI computing.

Groq’s $6.9B valuation stems from a $750M financing round the firm closed last month. The raise was led by Disruptive, with participation from BlackRock and a handful of other institutional investors.

In February, Groq landed a $1.5B investment from Saudi Arabia aimed at expanding inference computing infrastructure in the country. In 2024, Groq closed a BlackRock-led $640M funding round, a raise that included investment from Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures and Cisco.