AI chip maker Graphcore has been acquired by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.
The Bristol-based chipmaker has failed to cash in on the artificial intelligence boom as its IPUs (intelligence processing units) have not been adopted widely enough to compete with the GPUs (graphics processing units) of rivals such as Nvidia.
IPUs are specifically designed for AI compute and claim to allow researchers to carry out entirely new types of work to drive advances in machine intelligence.
We reported in February that SoftBank and OpenAI were considering £400m+ moves for Graphcore, which was forced to lay off workers and close global offices following a 46% drop in revenues for 2022 to $2.7m and widened losses of $204.6m.
The firm was valued at $2.8 billion in its most recent funding round at the end of 2020 but said late last year that it would need to raise more funds by May 2024.
Under the deal – for an undisclosed amount – Graphcore becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank and will continue to operate under the Graphcore name.
“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.”
Graphcore has raised more than $700m from the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital giant Sequoia and Microsoft. The latter – which has heavily backed ChatGPT maker OpenAI – stopped using Graphcore’s chips in its cloud computing centres in 2020 while Graphcore’s Chinese business closed following the introduction of updated US export restrictions in the country.
While Nvidia has seen its valuation rise, Graphcore has also been omitted from government AI funding, including the new supercomputer being built in its hometown of Bristol.
Graphcore was founded in 2016 by Toon and Simon Knowles after they sold their previous semiconductor company to Nvidia.
“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’s headquarters will remain in Bristol, with offices in Cambridge, London, Gdansk and Hsinchu.
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