SoftBank acquires British AI chipmaker Graphcore

Graphcore, founded in 2016 by Simon Knowles and Nigel Toon, is a British semiconductor firm headquartered in Bristol, UK. It specialises in developing advanced processing units specifically designed for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tasks. The company's flagship product, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), offers a novel processor architecture that optimises performance for the high computational demands of AI, setting it apart from traditional CPUs and GPUs.

The IPU's architecture features highly parallel and flexible processing capabilities, which improve computational efficiency by processing data closer to where it is stored. This design reduces data transfer bottlenecks and enhances overall performance. Complementing the IPU is the Poplar software stack, which includes tools and libraries that integrate seamlessly with popular machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch, making it easier for developers to leverage the IPU's capabilities.

Graphcore has garnered significant attention and investment from major technology firms such as Microsoft and Dell, which has helped the company secure substantial funding for its growth and development. The company's IPUs are utilised across various sectors, including data centres, automotive, healthcare, and finance, where advanced AI-driven insights and decision-making are essential.

"This is a tremendous endorsement of our team and their ability to build truly transformative AI technologies at scale, as well as a great outcome for our company," said Graphcore Co-Founder and CEO Nigel Toon. "Demand for AI compute is vast and continues to grow. There remains much to do to improve efficiency, resilience, and computational power to unlock the full potential of AI. In SoftBank, we have a partner that can enable the Graphcore team to redefine the landscape for AI technology."

"Society is embracing the opportunities offered by foundation models, generative AI applications and new approaches to scientific discovery," said Vikas J. Parekh, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. "Next generation semiconductors and compute systems are essential in the AGI journey, we're pleased to collaborate with Graphcore in this mission."

Graphcore is recognised as a leading employer in the UK's high tech economy and will continue to invest in the creation of high-skilled jobs spanning a range of disciplines.