Groq to Launch its First European Data Centre with Equinix
Located in Helsinki, Finland, the new data centre by Groq will reportedly be low cost to scale and mark the start of its European data centre footprint.
The facility is all part of Groq’s plans to continue expanding its global data centre network, as it seeks to continue being a global pioneer in AI inference. It delivers the capacity and low cost that production AI workloads demand so that customers can move fast and keep their advantage in the fast-paced AI world.
- AI inference is the process that a trained machine learning model uses to draw conclusions from new data (Cloudflare)
Collaborating with Equinix, Groq hopes to bring AI inference capacity closer to users across Europe – resulting in lower latency, faster response times at scale and strong data governance.
“As demand for AI inference continues at an ever-increasing pace, we know that those building fast need more – more capacity, more efficiency and with a cost that scales,” says Jonathan Ross, CEO and Founder of Groq.
Targeting AI workloads across Europe
Groq’s new European footprint, established in collaboration with Equinix in Helsinki, Finland, is designed to make operations faster.
Both companies say the partnership further strengthens the existing relationship between them, as they build on their established site in Dallas in the US. They say the Helsinki data centre will help to provide the highly reliable, secure and predictive connectivity that Equinix prides itself on as a leading data centre developer.
Additionally, Equinix Fabric customers will be able to deploy inference workloads to GroqCloud, with new customers across the US and EMEA being afforded the opportunity to affordably access inference capacity through Equinix Fabric’s available public, private, or sovereign infrastructure.
“There is no doubt AI is front of mind for businesses across Europe and the Nordics is a great place to host AI infrastructure. With its sustainable energy policies, free cooling and reliable power grid, Finland is a standout choice for hosting this new capacity,” explains Regina Donato Dahlström, Managing Director for the Nordics at Equinix.
“Combining Groq’s cutting-edge technology with Equinix’s global infrastructure and vendor-neutral connectivity solutions enables efficient AI inference at scale. Our customers at Equinix will be able to securely tap into GroqCloud and lead on innovation within their enterprise.”
Confronting surging demand
Groq, which is currently backed by investment arms of Samsung and Cisco, currently has data centres in the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia with its technology. As an AI company, it builds what it calls a Language Processing Unit (LPU) and related hardware to accelerate AI workload inference.
Now moving quickly into Europe, the company is eager to take advantage of rising demand for AI services across the continent.
It follows other competitor companies that are looking to increase their investments in the region – particularly within the Nordics, which have fast-become a popular location for data centre building, given its abundance of renewable energy and cooler climates.
This expansion to Europe builds on additional capacity in the U.S. (Equinix, DataBank), Canada (Bell Canada) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (HUMAIN), which are now serving more than 20 million tokens per second across Groq’s global network.
With this new deployment, enterprises can access GroqCloud over private connections without traversing the public internet.
Such momentum reflects global demand for Groq’s LPU systems, which have been celebrated for their low cost. The company says it makes large-scale AI accessible for AI-native companies and enterprises worldwide.
Jonathan adds: “With our new European data centre, customers get the lowest latency possible and infrastructure ready today. We're unlocking developer ambition now, not months from now.”