Find your path to Jonathan
258 people in our graph share verified history with Jonathan — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Alexander AshavskyunlockedJonathan: together at New York University (2008)
×5Jonathan: together at New York University
×6Jonathan: together at NVIDIA
About
Jonathan Ross invented Google's TPU as a 20% project, founded Groq in 2016 to break the AI inference bottleneck with the LPU — and in December 2025 Nvidia paid a reported $20 billion to license Groq's technology and hire Ross and his leadership team. A high-school dropout who talked his way into NYU's Courant Institute (taking PhD-level courses under Yann LeCun before dropping out again), he built the TPU from a nights-and-weekends accelerator into the chip behind AlphaGo, worked at Google X's Rapid Evaluation team, and grew Groq to a $6.9 billion valuation with landmark inference deals across Saudi Arabia and Canada before the Nvidia deal.
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Co-founded Groq in 2016 with fellow Google X alum Douglas Wightman to commercialize a from-scratch inference chip, the LPU.
- Education
- Dropped out of high school, then out of NYU's Courant Institute — where he was the first CS undergrad allowed into PhD-level courses, studying under Yann LeCun.
- More
- Started Google's TPU as a 20% project in 2013 after overhearing the speech team's compute complaints; it deployed to production in ~15 months and later powered AlphaGo. The December 2025 Nvidia deal — a ~$20B non-exclusive license plus the hiring of Ross and president Sunny Madra — reportedly came together in a three-week phone negotiation and drew antitrust scrutiny from lawmakers. Groq's February 2024 viral near-instant chat demo transformed the company's trajectory — Ross called it 'a game changer'. Under Ross, Groq became the exclusive inference provider for Bell Canada's sovereign AI network and anchored Saudi Arabia's $1.5B inference build-out with Aramco Digital and HUMAIN.
From published sources — common ground for a warm intro.
Founder & CEO at Groq
Intro paths
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In turn, Jonathan can intro founders to Groq's investors below.
Groq's investors · 44
Acequia Capital (AceCap)Seattle · $100K – $5M checksAlumni VenturesManchester · $100K – $10M checksB CapitalGenevaBasecamp FundManchester · $100K – $10M checksBeyond CapitalSan DiegoBlueYard CapitalBerlin · $500K – $5M checksCambium CapitalHighlandCleo CapitalNew York · $100K – $1M checksConversion CapitalSan Francisco · $500K – $5M checksDisruptiveDallas · since 2026E1 VenturesSan FranciscoEniac VenturesNew York · $1.2M checksFirestreak VenturesGarage CapitalWaterlooGlobal BrainTokyo · $100K – $184M checksGood CapitalMt. PleasantID8 InvestmentsNew YorkIn-Q-TelTysons · $100K – $2.5M checksIneffable VenturesStamfordIntegra GroupeMenlo Park · $100K – $200K checksInvestopadJuniperoMiamiKDDI Open Innovation FundLauder PartnersLos AltosLobby CapitalPalo AltoLvna CapitalMiamiMana VenturesEsteroManhattan WestLos AngelesMighty CapitalSan FranciscoModi VenturesHoustonMorgan Creek CapitalChapel Hill · $1M – $5M checksOpen Field CapitalNew YorkRace CapitalPalo Alto · $250K – $2M checksRiverbend CapitalWashingtonSamsung Catalyst FundSan JoseSpider CapitalSan Francisco · $500K checksStrategxy Ventures LLCBeverly Hills · $1M – $5M checksStrawberry Creek VenturesManchesterTDK VenturesSan Jose · $5M checksTranspose Platform ManagementHoustonTrousdale VenturesWest Hollywood · $1M – $5M checksType One VenturesLos Angeles · $100K – $5M checksUncork CapitalSan Francisco · $3M – $5M checksXTX MarketsBristol
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Co-founders at Groq
DW
Douglas WightmanExecutive Officer, Director
Experience
- NVIDIAChief Software Architectcurrent2025 — present
- groqceo + founder2018 — 2025
- groqcto + founder2016 — 2018
- X, the moonshot factoryrapid evaluator2015 — 2016San Francisco Bay Area
- Googlehardware engineer - started tpu effort2013 — 2015Madison, Wisconsin Area
- GoogleSoftware Engineer2011 — 2013Greater New York City Area
- Pacmid LLC.Head of Research & Development2009 — 2011New York, United States
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Jonathan RossColleagues at NVIDIA
Alán Aspuru-Guzik
Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at Propagator Ventures
Brooke Seawell
Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
Can Celik
Founder at herdr
Dr. Marco Pavone
Investor at AV8 Ventures
Erikan Obotetukudo
Founder and Managing Partner at Audacity Global
Garnet Heraman
Founder and Managing Partner at Aperture Venture Capital
Jure Leskovec
Advisory Board at Silicon Gardens
Katie Sproul
Chief Executive Officer at Halstatt
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Jonathan Ross?
- Jonathan Ross invented Google's TPU as a 20% project, founded Groq in 2016 to break the AI inference bottleneck with the LPU — and in December 2025 Nvidia paid a reported $20 billion to license Groq's technology and hire Ross and his leadership team. A high-school dropout who talked his way into NYU's Courant Institute (taking PhD-level courses under Yann LeCun before dropping out again), he built the TPU from a nights-and-weekends accelerator into the chip behind AlphaGo, worked at Google X's Rapid Evaluation team, and grew Groq to a $6.9 billion valuation with landmark inference deals across Saudi Arabia and Canada before the Nvidia deal.
- Where does Jonathan Ross work?
- Jonathan Ross is Founder & CEO of Groq and Chief Software Architect at NVIDIA.
- What companies did Jonathan Ross found?
- Jonathan Ross founded Groq.
- Where did Jonathan Ross go to school?
- Jonathan Ross studied at New York University (Honors Mathematics and Honors Computer Science).
- What podcasts and interviews feature Jonathan Ross?
- Tracked appearances include "Jonathan Ross, Groq", "With Groq, Jonathan Ross is taking AI inference to new speeds", "NVIDIA vs Groq: The Future of Training vs Inference".
Founder mafias
New York University mafia242
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Rajiv KhemaniMSFounded Auradine +5Dennis CrowleyMPSFounded Street FC +3Uri LopatinResidencyFounded Assemblybio +2Ben ZisesReal Estate Finance and InvestmentFounded Superangelsyndicate +2Brien ColwellMastersFounded BringYour +2🐯 Michael FreedmanPh.D.Founded Iobeam +2
+ 235 more
NVIDIA mafia136
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Alán Aspuru-GuzikSenior Director of Quantum ChemistryFounded Intrepid Labs +1Saurabh SrivastavaNemotron, Advanced Deep Learning ResearchFounded Warpdrive by Synthetic Minds +1Lee LiuWeb Software EngineerFounded Mezmo +1Musawir ShahSr. Software Engineer - TegraFounded Jerry +1Alex SismanisAndroid Developer InternFounded L1 Advisors +1Bhairav MehtaDeep Learning and Robotics ResearchFounded CharacterQuilt +1
+ 129 more
Same school
Also attended New York University616
Gabriella GiglioHR & Executive Talent at General CatalystAndrea EchstenkamperVP of Marketing at HeavybitRami BranitzkyPartner at Sapphire VenturesZach WhiteInvestment Team at 8VCAnkita TiwariPrograms Manager at StartXUri LopatinInvestor at Khosla Ventures
+ 610 more
Shared employers
Also worked at groq43
Jeannette zu FürstenbergPresident & Managing Director at General CatalystAbdo John HajjFounder of AJH Investments, a private investment office built for long-duration ownership.Tripp JonesInvestor at Uncork CapitalSunny DhillonFounder and Managing Partner at Kyber Knight CapitalJean WeillAssociate at C4 VenturesVictor Bunoust-RoquerePrincipal at Manhattan Venture Partners
+ 37 more
Also worked at X, the moonshot factory78
James WangGeneral Partner at Creative VenturesAlice CheungPartner, Talent at S32Anisha MustiInvestor at Dorm RoomSteven WillingerGP at Blockchain BuildersMike McCauleyCo-founder & General Partner at Inovia CapitalVikash SinghPrincipal at STILLMARK
+ 72 more
Also worked at Google2,000
Kai-Fu LeeChairman of Sinovation Ventures and CEO of 01.AIBrian SingermanCo-founder of GPx; Partner Emeritus at Founders FundJess LeePartner and Chief Product Officer at Sequoia CapitalHunter WalkCo-founder & Partner at HomebrewAydin SenkutFounder & Managing Partner at FelicisLaela SturdyManaging Partner at CapitalG
+ 1,994 more