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May 28 (Reuters) - Groq is raising up to $650 million from existing investors, Axios ‌reported on Thursday, after the AI ‌chip startup signed a $17 billion licensing deal with Nvidia ​in December.

Groq has been shifting focus away from hardware toward AI inferencing, where it specializes in enabling trained AI models to ‌respond to user ⁠requests.

• The startup's investors have already received payouts, with a final cash ⁠distribution expected soon through the Nvidia deal, Axios reported.

• Investors are now being asked ​to participate ​in Groq 2.0, ​with existing backers ‌Disruptive and Infinitum backstopping the $650 million raise if it is not fully subscribed, the report said.

• Existing shareholders will receive the remaining cash distributions and then have the opportunity ‌to invest in a ​new company, Axios reported.

• ​Groq did not ​immediately respond to Reuters' request ‌for comment.

• Nvidia is ​preparing a version ​of its Groq AI chips that can be sold to the Chinese market, ​two sources ‌familiar with the matter told Reuters in ​March.

(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; ​Editing by Jonathan Ananda)