Strategic expansion taps into Europe’s AI infrastructure push
U.S. semiconductor startup Groq has opened its first data center in Europe, selecting Helsinki, Finland as its operational base. The facility, developed in partnership with Equinix, marks a major step in Groq’s global expansion as it aims to meet surging demand for AI inference capabilities across the continent.
Groq, valued at $2.8 billion and backed by the investment arms of Samsung and Cisco, builds Language Processing Units (LPUs) optimized for AI inferencing—a critical task where trained models analyze real-time data. Unlike Nvidia’s dominant GPUs, which are essential for training large-scale models, Groq’s LPUs are designed for speed and cost-efficiency at scale.
Why Finland?
Helsinki’s appeal lies in its cool climate and reliable access to renewable energy—factors that reduce operational costs and carbon footprint. The Nordic region has become a prime destination for data infrastructure projects, with major players like Nvidia also recently announcing European investments.
Groq’s CEO, Jonathan Ross, told CNBC that the company chose the location just four weeks ago and expects the facility to be operational within days. “We expect to be serving traffic starting by the end of this week,” Ross stated, highlighting Groq’s rapid deployment capabilities as a competitive edge.
Challenging Nvidia’s dominance
While Nvidia leads in the AI training segment, Groq aims to carve out a niche in inference, where demand is high and margins are thinner. Ross emphasized Groq’s supply chain advantages, noting that its LPUs avoid reliance on scarce high-bandwidth memory and are largely built with North American components.
“We’re not as supply limited, and that’s important for inference,” Ross explained. “We’re happy to take that high-volume, low-margin business and let others focus on high-margin training.”
Serving Europe’s sovereign AI goals
The Helsinki facility also aligns with growing European emphasis on sovereign AI, which encourages local data hosting to ensure privacy and performance. Equinix, which hosts multiple cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud, will integrate Groq’s LPUs, enabling seamless access to AI inference capabilities for businesses across the region.
Groq’s current data center footprint includes the U.S., Canada, and Saudi Arabia. The Helsinki launch represents not only a geographic milestone but also a strategic move to solidify its presence in the global AI infrastructure race.