Groq launched its first European data center Monday, planting roots in Helsinki, Finland. The AI chip startup is pushing hard into the continent.
The data center deal is with Equinix, leveraging Nordic advantages like renewable energy and cool climate. Groq’s move taps into Europe’s growing AI demand, joining other big U.S. players expanding locally.
Groq, backed by Samsung and Cisco investors, is valued at $2.8 billion. It designs LPUs—language processing units focused on AI inferencing, not model training. That’s a play for the lower-margin, high-volume edge Nvidia’s GPUs skip. 
CEO Jonathan Ross said Groq avoids pricey parts like high-bandwidth memory, relying on a North American supply chain. That means faster, less constrained scaling.
"We’re not as supply limited, and that’s important for inference, which is very high volume, low margin," Ross told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
"And the reason that we’re so good for Nvidia’s shareholders is, we’re happy to take that high volume but lower margin business and let others focus on the high-margin training."
Ross also hyped Groq’s quick setup—decided just four weeks ago, servers are already unloading in Helsinki. He predicts live traffic by week’s end.
"We expect to be serving traffic starting by the end of this week. That’s built fast and so it’s a very different proposition from what you see in the rest of the market," Ross said.
Groq’s European debut follows Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s recent infrastructure push across Europe. Sovereign AI trends and lower latency boost demand for localized data centers.
Groq already has data centers in the U.S., Canada, and Saudi Arabia. Now, Europe is on its radar with the Helsinki Equinix partnership letting customers tap Groq’s inference chips alongside major clouds like AWS and Google Cloud.
