A startup called Groq is creating chips that can run generative AI models more quickly than traditional hardware, with an eye toward the public and corporate sectors.

Groq revealed plans to create a new business called Groq Systems, with the goal of significantly growing its developer and customer base. Serving businesses, including governmental entities, that want to construct new data centers employing Groq processors or integrate Groq chips into already-existing ones is under Groq Systems’ jurisdiction.

To establish the new division, Groq purchased Definitive Intelligence, a Palo Alto-based company that provides a variety of AI products for commercial use, such as chatbots, data analytics tools, and documentation builders. GroqCloud, the cloud platform developed by Groq that offers self-serve API access to the company’s cloud-hosted accelerators, code samples, and documentation for Groq hardware, is currently being led by Sunny Madra, the CEO of Definitive Intelligence.

“At Groq, we’re committed to creating an AI economy that’s accessible and affordable for anyone with a brilliant idea,” Groq co-founder and CEO Jonathan Ross said in a press release. “We’re excited to welcome Sunny and his team from Definitive Intelligence to help us achieve this mission … The Definitive team has expertise in AI solutions and go-to-market strategies, as well as a proven dedication to sharing knowledge with the community.”

Along with former EMC director of engineering Gavin Sherry, Madra co-founded Definitive Intelligence in 2022. Madra and Sherry co-launched Autonomic, a cloud-based platform that connects mobility technologies, which Ford purchased in 2018, before creating Definitive Intelligence.

Business-focused GenAI solutions from Definitive Intelligence include Advisor, a visualization generator that links to public and enterprise databases, and OpenAssistants, a set of open-source frameworks for creating AI chatbots. Pioneer, a “autonomous data science agent” that can manage a variety of data analytics activities, including predictive modeling, is one of Definitive’s best products.

Definitive Intelligence had raised $25.5 million in venture funding prior to the acquisition.

“The world is just now realizing how important high-speed inference is to generative AI,” Madra said in an emailed statement. “At Groq, we’re giving developers the speed, low latency, and efficiency they need to deliver on the generative AI promise. I’ve been a big fan of Groq since I first met Jonathan in 2016 and I am thrilled to join him and the Groq team in their quest to bring the fastest inference engine to the world.”

Groq is developing an LPU (language processing unit) inference engine after coming out of stealth in 2016. According to the business, their LPU can process huge language models at ten times the speed of current models, which are architecturally similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4.

The tensor processing unit (TPU), a specially designed AI accelerator processor used by Google to run and train models, is credited to Ross for its invention.

After acquiring Maxeler Technologies, a company that provides high-performance computing and AI infrastructure solutions, in 2022, Groq has now acquired Definitive Intelligence. It may not be the last one. Custom AI chip sales are fiercely competitive, and Groq’s intentions are somewhat hinted at by the Definitive purchase.