Groq started out developing AI inference chips and has expanded on that with a system of software called GroqCloud. The company now exists in two markets: working with developers and innovators to power applications with AI and managing sovereign AI for international clients. Groq describes implementing its system as almost like drop-shipping an AI inference compute center. The company is planning to build on its work with Bell Canada, where it managed a sovereign AI network across six sites and is getting interest from other national telecommunication companies, according to Chris Stephens, vice president and field chief technology officer of Groq. Stephens foresees competition between incumbent enterprise applications such as SAP SE and AI-native startups who want to disrupt the current software hierarchy. Whichever side the market lands on, Groq has put itself squarely in the inference space, which has been seeing a number of use cases in workflow automation and customer service. Stephens sees Groq’s hardware layer as a significant advantage in the current market, enabling the company to run more data centers while using less energy than its competitors.