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Spain’s Multiverse Raises $217 Million to Compress AI Language Models

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Spanish artificial intelligence startup Multiverse Computing announced it has secured €189 million ($217 million) in funding from Bullhound Capital, HP Inc, Forgepoint Capital, and Toshiba to advance its technology for compressing AI language models.

Multiverse has developed a compression technology that can reduce the size of large language models (LLMs) by up to 95% without sacrificing performance, enabling cost reductions of up to 80%. The method blends concepts from quantum physics and machine learning to emulate quantum systems but does not require a quantum computer.

This recent funding round positions Multiverse as the largest AI startup in Spain and places it among leading European AI companies such as Mistral, Aleph Alpha, Synthesia, Poolside, and Owkin.

Multiverse has already released compressed versions of popular LLMs, including Meta’s Llama, China’s DeepSeek, and France’s Mistral, with plans to expand its model offerings. CEO Enrique Lizaso Olmos highlighted the focus on compressing widely used open-source LLMs, noting that many corporations currently rely on the Llama model family.

The compressed AI models are also available through Amazon Web Services’ AI marketplace, facilitating broader industry adoption.

Groq Secures $1.5 Billion Commitment from Saudi Arabia for AI Expansion

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U.S.-based semiconductor startup Groq has secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand the delivery of its advanced AI chips to the country. The Silicon Valley company, founded by a former Alphabet (GOOGL.O) AI chip engineer, specializes in AI inference chips designed to optimize speed and execute commands for pre-trained models.

Groq already has an agreement with Aramco Digital, the tech subsidiary of oil giant Aramco (2222.SE), which helped establish a key AI hub in the region in December. The new investment will be used to expand Groq’s existing data center in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The company’s chips, which are particularly adept at delivering fast responses from large language models and chatbots, are subject to U.S. export controls. However, Groq has confirmed it holds the necessary licenses to ship its chips to Dammam.

The commitment was unveiled during Saudi Arabia’s global tech event, LEAP 2025, where the country secured a total of $14.9 billion in fresh AI investments. The Dammam data center will support Allam, an AI language model developed by the Saudi government, capable of working in both Arabic and English.

Earlier in August, Groq achieved a $2.8 billion valuation after raising $640 million in a funding round led by Cisco Investments, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and BlackRock Private Equity Partners.