Groq raises $350M at half its prior valuation, shifts from Nvidia rival to Nvidia customer

Groq raised $350M at a $3.5B valuation, down from $6.9B in September 2025. A December licensing deal sent Groq's founder, CEO, and chip team to Nvidia. Groq then abandoned its LPU silicon — custom chips for faster AI inference — and became an Nvidia Cloud Partner on August 12. Nvidia now plans to invest in the neocloud business that buys its GPUs.