SoftBank acquires British AI chipmaker Graphcore
SoftBank has announced its acquisition of Graphcore, a leading British AI chipmaker. The deal will see Graphcore becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank.
This acquisition, reportedly valued at about $600 million, is not SoftBank’s first foray into the UK tech scene.
In 2016, SoftBank controversially acquired British chip designer Arm in a much larger deal. However, the Graphcore purchase comes at a lower valuation than the total funding the company is said to have raised, which was around $700 million.
Graphcore will continue to operate under its own name and maintain its headquarters in Bristol, UK. The company also retains its offices in Cambridge, London, Gdansk, and Hsinchu, signalling SoftBank’s commitment to preserving Graphcore’s established presence and operations.
Nigel Toon, co-founder and CEO of Graphcore, said: “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.”
Toon went on to emphasise the ongoing demand for AI compute and the work that remains to be done in improving efficiency, resilience, and computational power to fully realise AI’s potential.
Graphcore’s key offering is a range of “Intelligence Processing Units” – accelerators designed specifically for AI workloads – along with a software stack that allows developers to utilise its hardware effectively.
The company’s technology has often impressed. In 2020, a Graphcore device outperformed an Nvidia A100 GPU, and in another instance, its hardware halved the time required to handle a GPU-based drug discovery workload.
Despite these technological successes, Graphcore has struggled to generate significant revenue and achieve profitability. In 2022, the company reported revenue of just $2.7 million – a 46 percent year-on-year decrease – while operating expenses reached $206.8 million.
Vikas J. Parekh, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, commented: “Society is embracing the opportunities offered by foundation models, generative AI applications, and new approaches to scientific discovery.
“Next generation semiconductors and compute systems are essential in the AGI journey, we’re pleased to collaborate with Graphcore in this mission.”
The mention of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in Parekh’s statement suggests that SoftBank sees Graphcore’s technology as a key component in the pursuit of more advanced AI systems that can match or exceed human-level intelligence across a wide range of tasks.
Graphcore has built a reputation as a leading employer in the UK’s high-tech economy, and the company has committed to continuing its investment in creating high-skilled jobs across various disciplines.
The acquisition of Graphcore by SoftBank is likely to provide the AI chipmaker with significant resources and opportunities for expansion. It also reflects the increasing competition in the AI chip market, where companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have been vying for dominance.
As AI continues to permeate various sectors of the economy and society, the demand for specialised AI hardware is expected to grow. Graphcore’s integration into SoftBank’s portfolio positions both companies to capitalise on this trend.
See also: PC market finds new momentum amid AI interest
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