AI Chip Startup Groq Launches First Data Center in Europe

Groq, the rapidly emerging AI chip startup, today announced the launch of its inaugural European data center in Helsinki, Finland. This strategic expansion marks a significant milestone for the company, aiming to deliver low-latency, high-performance AI inference capabilities closer to its growing European clientele.

In collaboration with global digital infrastructure provider Equinix, the new Helsinki facility is poised to meet the escalating demand for real-time AI processing across the continent. Groq, known for its innovative Language Processing Unit (LPU) designed specifically for AI inference, is positioning itself as a key player in a market hungry for faster, more efficient AI solutions.

Jonathan Ross, CEO and Founder of Groq, emphasized the timely nature of this expansion. “As demand for AI inference continues at an ever-increasing pace, we know that those building fast need more – more capacity, more efficiency, and with a cost that scales,” he stated. “With our new European data center, customers get the lowest latency possible and infrastructure ready today. We’re unlocking developer ambition now, not months from now.”

The choice of Helsinki is strategic, leveraging Finland’s sustainable energy policies, reliable power grid, and naturally cool climate, which offers significant advantages for data center operations and cooling efficiency. Regina Donato Dahlström, Managing Director for the Nordics at Equinix, highlighted how “Combining Groq’s advanced technology with Equinix’s global infrastructure and vendor-neutral connectivity solutions enables efficient AI inference at scale.”

This European foothold complements Groq’s existing data centers in the U.S., Canada, and Saudi Arabia, collectively processing over 20 million tokens per second. The expansion is particularly crucial for European enterprises and governments seeking to maintain data sovereignty and privacy, as the new center allows them to leverage GroqCloud via private connections, bypassing the public internet and bolstering security.

Groq’s LPU architecture is designed for the inferencing phase of AI, where pre-trained models analyze new data to generate immediate results. This differentiates Groq from companies primarily focused on AI model training (like Nvidia with its GPUs), offering a solution optimized for the rapid, consistent performance needed for production AI workloads. The launch in Helsinki underscores Groq’s commitment to global accessibility and its ambition to become a top provider of high-speed AI inference.