UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip maker Graphcore has been acquired by Japanese holding company SoftBank Group Corp.
It comes after Graphcore warned last year that there was uncertainty over its survival and the company needed new funding. In 2022 Graphcore closed its operations in Norway, Japan and South Korea.
SoftBank previously acquired UK chip designer Arm in 2016.
Announcing the acquisition, Graphcore co-founder and CEO Nigel Toon 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.
“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.”
Vikas J. Parekh, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, added: “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.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Graphcore becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank and will continue to operate under the Graphcore name. It will retain its headquarters in Bristol, and offices in Cambridge, London, Gdansk and Hsinchu.
