Jonathan Ross walked away from Google, sold everything he owned, and built Groq to take on a trillion-dollar Nvidia
Founder Jonathan Ross never cared for material possessions. His wardrobe? The same black t-shirt. The rest? He sold. For him, minimalism wasn’t a statement, it was an intentional choice to maintain his focus.
At Google, Ross was the architect behind the era-defining chip that powered the AI revolution. A breakthrough that put Google ahead of the pack.
But Ross noticed what others overlooked. When people wanted instant replies from AI, it dragged its feet. So in 2016, he walked away from the security and prestige of Google with a vision to change that.
That vision became Groq, a game-changing chip that would deliver quicker speeds.
The road ahead, however, was anything but smooth.
In 2017, Groq raised $10M to get off the ground. A year later, $52.3M provided further momentum. By 2021, a $300M round catapulted the company into contention.
Yet by 2023, revenue was at $3.2M vs staggering losses of $88M.
Critics asked how a startup bleeding cash could ever challenge a trillion-dollar titan like Nvidia?
Then came signs of life.
In August 2024, Groq raised $640M at a $2.8B valuation, and investors began to see what Ross always believed.
Soon after, Groq struck a partnership with Aramco Digital in Saudi Arabia, securing a $1.5B commitment to embed Groq into the kingdom’s digital strategy.
And then, a breakthrough moment.
Groq announced it had closed a fresh $750M investment round, pushing its valuation to $6.9B, with heavyweight backers including FlightStory Fund, BlackRock, Samsung, and Cisco.
In a world dominated by trillion-dollar giants, Ross is doubling down on his pick-and-shovels play to help AI run at the speed needed as we we enter the era of AGI.
