Samsung’s Taylor fab secures first order from AI startup Groq

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, has forged a partnership with Groq, a US-based artificial intelligence inference systems provider, securing the first chip order for its semiconductor fab currently in construction in Texas.

Groq revealed in a press release on Monday (US time) that it has established ties with Samsung Foundry to be its “next-gen silicon partner,” saying the collaboration will support the company’s growth to consistently “outperform” graphics processors on AI and machine learning tasks.

Groq is an AI solutions company delivering ultra-low latency inference with the first-ever LPU, first established by Google engineers in 2016. Groq’s chips are thought to be used for data centers and autonomous vehicles.

"The first-gen Groq LPU was built for AI from the ground up, enabling Groq to consistently outperform graphics processors on AI and ML tasks. Our partnership with Samsung will allow us to continue that leap forward, by tapping into the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies available," Jonathan Ross, CEO and founder of Groq said.

Marco Chisari, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and head of Samsung's US foundry business and head of Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center, said, "Samsung Foundry is committed to advancing semiconductor technology and bringing groundbreaking AI, HPC, and data center solutions to market. This relationship with Groq is another proof point of how we're using our advanced silicon manufacturing nodes to bring new AI innovation to market."

According to Groq, the next-gen silicon to be designed in partnership with Samsung's Foundry Design Service team and manufactured by Samsung on its 4-nanometer SF4X process, will utilize the first-gen Tensor Streaming architecture.

Through their collaboration, the two companies seek to improve throughput, latency, power consumption, hardware footprint and memory capacity, they said.

Groq also hinted its new product would be made in Samsung’s new fab currently under construction in Taylor, Texas, neighboring its first US chip manufacturing facility in Austin which broke ground in 1996.

“Working with Samsung further strengthens Groq's already completely North American-based operations for engineering and manufacturing, and will help maintain its high product availability and short lead times,” Groq said.