Several Google engineers have left one of its most secretive AI projects to form a stealth start-up

by Dramelin 8:00 PM 0 comments

Google has slowly been pulling back the curtain on homegrown silicon that could define the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Some key creators of that project -- the Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU -- recently left to team up with Chamath Palihapitiya, one of Silicon Valley`s most prominent and outspoken young venture investors, on a stealth start-up.
is the name of the company, at least for the time being.
There`s no website and no promotional materials.
All that exists online are a couple SEC filings from October and December showing that the company raised $10.
3 million, and an incorporation filing in the state of Delaware on September 12.
"We`re really excited about Groq," Palihapitiya wrote in an e-mail.
"It`s too early to talk specifics, but we think what they`re building could become a fundamental building block for the next generation of computing.
" Groq names three principals in the SEC documents: Jonathan Ross, who helped invent the TPU, Douglas Wightman, an entrepreneur and former engineer at the Google X "moonshot factory" and Palihapitiya, the founder of investment firm Social Capital.
The listed address is Social Capital`s headquarters.
Palihapitiya told CNBC last month that he invested in a team of ex-Googlers who helped build the chip, which he first heard about on an earnings call two-and-a-half years ago.
"They randomly mentioned that they built their own chip for AI and I thought, what is going on here, why is Google competing with Intel?" Palihapitiya said in an interview on "Squawk Box.