LPUs (Language Processing Units)

Extracted Attributes

• Developer

  Groq, Inc.

• Key Advantage

  High-speed sequential processing for tokenization and attention mechanisms

• Original Name

  Tensor Streaming Processor (TSP)

• Target Workloads

  Large Language Models (LLMs), image classification, and predictive analysis

• Architecture Type

  Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

• Primary Application

  AI Inference

Timeline

• Rebranded from Tensor Streaming Processor (TSP) to Language Processing Unit (LPU) following the widespread adoption of ChatGPT. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2023-01-01

• LPUs gain viral attention for demonstrating faster and cheaper AI inference performance compared to Nvidia GPUs during a showcase discussed on the All-In Podcast. (Source: All-In Podcast)

  2024-02-23

• Nvidia and Groq announce a $20 billion agreement to license Groq's AI inference technology and transfer senior executives to Nvidia. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2025-12-01

Groq

Groq, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company that builds an AI accelerator application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The architecture was originally introduced as a Tensor Streaming Processor (TSP) but was later rebranded as a Language Processing Unit (LPU) following the widespread adoption of large language models after the breakthrough of ChatGPT. The company also develops related computer hardware and software to accelerate AI inference performance. Examples of the types of AI workloads that run on Groq's LPU are: large language models (LLMs), image classification, and predictive analysis. Groq is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, and has offices in San Jose, CA, Liberty Lake, WA, Toronto, Canada, London, U.K. and remote employees throughout North America and Europe. In December 2025, Nvidia and Groq announced an agreement reportedly valued at approximately US$20 billion to license Groq's AI inference technology and to transfer several senior Groq executives to Nvidia. Groq stated that it would continue to operate as an independent company.

Web Search Results

• Language Processing Unit (LPU). Introduction | by Harisudhan.S

  Language Processing Units (LPUs) act as powerful catalysts, accelerating the development and utilization of large language models (LLMs). Wherever LLMs are being deployed, integrating LPUs can dramatically enhance efficiency, scalability, and overall performance. The profound impact of LPUs extends beyond merely expediting the training process; they also enable faster inference speeds, even as models continue to grow in size and complexity. [...] Language Processing Units (LPUs) are newly emerging processors designed specifically for language-related tasks such as text comprehension and conversational interactions with chatbots. These specialized processors excel in such language-centric operations and may offer superior efficiency compared to the more generalized Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). However, GPUs remain the go-to choice for graphics rendering and certain artificial intelligence applications. As LPU technology continues to [...] By harnessing the specialized architecture of LPUs, organizations can unlock unprecedented levels of performance and computational power when working with LLMs. This technological advancement paves the way for more rapid iterations, quicker deployment cycles, and the ability to tackle increasingly ambitious natural language processing tasks with unparalleled speed and precision.

• Language Processing Units (LPUs): Paving the way for ...

  Have you heard about Language Processing Units (LPUs) yet? If you haven’t, prepare to be wowed! LPUs are specialised processors engineered specifically for language-related tasks. They differ from other processors that handle multiple tasks simultaneously. The LPU combines the best of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) – great at sequential tasks, and the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) – great at concurrent tasks. [...] Finally, picture a super-efficient barista (LPU – Language Processing Unit). This robot is specifically designed to handle complex and varied coffee orders swiftly. It can understand detailed instructions quickly and adapt to each customer’s unique preferences with incredible speed and accuracy. Unlike the single barista or the team of baristas, the robot barista excels at processing these intricate orders without slowing down, no matter how many customers are lined up or how complex the orders [...] Tatum Bisley, product lead at contact centres solutions provider Cirrus, says: “Language Processing Units are not just changing how we interact with technology in contact centres; they’re setting the stage for a future where real-time processing is seamlessly integrated across various sectors. With LPUs, we’re seeing a dramatic reduction in latency, making interactions with finance or healthcare customers as smooth and natural as face-to-face conversations.

• What Is a Language Processing Unit (LPU)? - Pure Storage

  LPU stands for Language Processing Unit; it's a proprietary and specialized chip developed by a company called Groq (not to be mistaken for the artificial intelligence company Grok headed by Elon Musk). Groq designed LPUs specifically to handle the unique speed and memory demands of LLMs. Namely, an LPU is an especially fast processor designed for computationally intensive applications that are sequential in nature rather than parallel—and LLMs are notably sequential. [...] Until recently, LLMs have been powered by existing chips and processing systems. But Language Processing Units (LPUs) are custom-built chips and computing systems that promise to accelerate LLM development with never-before-seen speeds and precision. Equipped with storage infrastructures capable of handling their incredible speed and throughput, LPUs are the future of natural language processing—with the potential to radically reshape industries like cybersecurity, government, research, and [...] When leveraging a specialized architecture that's tailored specifically for a certain task, it's possible to achieve faster processing speeds, higher throughput, and improved precision. Regardless of the end goal of the LLM, whether it's being developed for speech recognition, language translation, or sentiment analysis, an LPU will provide greater efficiency and accuracy than general-purpose hardware will. ### Applications of Language Processing Units (LPUs)

• New AI Compute Paradigm: The Language Processing ...

  Language Processing Units (LPUs) : LPUs are emerging as a pivotal technology in the areas of AI, designed specifically to optimise the performance of tasks related to language processing. They represent a shift from general-purpose computing hardware, such as CPUs and GPUs, towards more specialized chips that can offer superior efficiency and speed for AI-driven language applications. ## Recommended by LinkedIn AIOS: The Operating System That Thinks, Learns, and… [...] The landscape of AI, GenAI, and LLM optimisation is rapidly evolving, with the development and implementation of specialized hardware like Language Processing Units (LPUs) gaining significant attention. Companies like Groq are at the forefront of this innovation, crafting hardware solutions tailored to the demands of Generative AI applications, including those involving large language models (LLMs).

• What are Language Processing Units (LPUs)? - GeeksforGeeks

  geeksforgeeks # What are Language Processing Units (LPUs)? Language Processing Unit (LPU) is a special type of processor built for NLP tasks. Unlike traditional CPUs or GPUs, LPUs are designed to handle demands of language models like tokenization, attention mechanisms, sequence modeling and context handling. With this result are much faster and more efficient processing of language data. LPUs offer: ## Key Features of LPUs [...] There are several features of LPUs that make them more capable for NLP related tasks. Some of them are: ### 1. Purpose Built Architecture LPUs are built to meet the needs of NLP. Operations like attention, softmax and positional encoding are handled more efficiently at the hardware level. ### 2. Efficient and Scalable [...] | LPU | Purpose-built for natural language tasks | Optimized for transformers; fast inference; efficient memory use | Still emerging; limited general-purpose utility |