Startup Groq has successfully raised $640 million, achieving a valuation of $2.8 billion, with Blackstone Group as the lead investor. This move signals a potential shift in the AI hardware market landscape. Groq focuses on developing specialized chips to accelerate AI workloads, particularly in the language processing domain, with its flagship product, the Language Processing Unit (LPU), capable of running large language models with unprecedented speed and efficiency. As AI demand surges, Groq aims to become a strong competitor in the market, focusing on inference to provide more efficient and cost-effective AI hardware solutions.