Chip Startup Groq Backs Saudi AI Ambitions With Aramco Deal
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Artificial intelligence startup Groq Inc. has partnered with oil producer Aramco to build a giant data center in Saudi Arabia that it hopes will become a hub for companies running AI systems across the Middle East, Africa and India.
The California-based startup will operate what it has said will be the world’s largest AI inferencing center that initially has 19,000 language processing units, while Aramco will fund the development that is expected to cost “in the order of nine figures,” Groq Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ross said in an interview in Riyadh. The data center will be up and running by the end of this year, and could later expand to include a total of 200,000 language processing units, Ross said