Groq Inc., a well-funded maker of artificial intelligence inference chips, has acquired fellow startup Definitive Intelligence Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

The companies announced the transaction today. The deal will help Groq enhance the capabilities of its newest offering, a cloud platform called GroqCloud that provides on-demand access to its AI chips.

Groq was founded in 2016 by Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ross, a former Google LLC engineer who invented the search giant’s TPU machine learning processors. The company is backed by more than $360 million in funding. It raised the bulk of that capital through a Series C round co-led by Tiger Global Management and D1 Capital in early 2021.

Groq’s flagship product is an AI chip known as the LPU Inference Engine. It’s optimized to power large language models with a focus on inference, or the task of running an AI in production after it has been trained. In a November benchmark test, Groq’s LPU set an inference speed record while running Meta Platform Inc.’s popular Llama 2 70B LLM.

The LPU consists of cores dubbed TSPs that each include about 230 megabytes of memory. According to Groq, the TSPs are linked together by an on-chip network that provides detailed information on how much time it takes data to travel between the different cores. This information helps speed up LLM response times. 

The faster a piece of data reaches a chip core via the onboard network, the sooner processing can begin. The information that the LPU provides about its onboard network allows LLMs to identify the fastest data travel routes and use them to speed up computations. Groq claims its chip can perform inference up to 10 times faster than competing products.

Definitive Intelligence, the company has acquired, is a Palo Alto, California-based analytics provider that previously raised more than $10 million in funding. It offers an AI-powered application that enables users to query datasets with natural language instructions. The software also lends itself to related tasks such as creating data visualizations.

Groq detailed on occasion of the acquisition that Definitive Intelligence had helped it build GroqCloud, a recently launched platform through which it provides on-demand access to LPUs. Developers can use the platform to familiarize themselves with the company’s chips and build applications optimized for their architecture. A built-in library of learning resources promises to ease the onboarding process. 

Following the acquisition, Definitive Intelligence co-founder and CEO Sunny Madra will join Groq to lead the business unit in charge of GroqCloud. The unit’s initial priorities include expanding the platform’s capacity and growing its user base. Groq said that the acquisition will also support the launch of a second division, Groq Systems, that will focus on helping organizations such as government agencies deploy the company’s LPUs.

Image: Groq