AI-chip designer Groq has opened its first European data center in Helsinki, Finland, working with global colocation provider Equinix. The launch marks the Mountain View-based company’s most significant expansion outside North America and the Middle East as it targets growing demand for artificial-intelligence services in Europe. The privately held firm, valued at about $2.8 billion and backed by investment units of Samsung and Cisco, said the facility will host its custom Language Processing Unit hardware for real-time AI inference. Locating the servers in Helsinki is intended to cut latency for regional customers and comply with European data-sovereignty rules while tapping the Nordics’ abundant renewable energy and naturally cool climate to lower operating costs. The Finnish site joins Groq’s existing data-center footprint in the United States, Canada and Saudi Arabia. By expanding capacity, the company aims to challenge market leader Nvidia and other chip startups vying for the fast-growing inference segment of the AI market.