UK AI Chip Company Graphcore Acquired by SoftBank
TapTechNews July 12th news, according to the Graphcore official website, this struggling UK AI chip company has been acquired by SoftBank.
According to the agreement, Graphcore will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank and continue to operate under the existing name. The specific transaction value was not disclosed by both parties.
Graphcore was founded in 2016 in the southwestern UK city of Bristol and has launched multiple generations of AI load accelerators known as IntelligenceProcessingUnit (TapTechNews note: abbreviated as IPU).
Graphcore was once regarded as the UK version of NVIDIA. However, since 2020, the company has not obtained new financing and has also lost important orders from Microsoft, which has made it with tight funds and difficult operation, failing to keep up with the general trend in the field of AI chips.
Graphcore co-founder and CEO NigelToon said:
This (referring to being acquired by SoftBank) is a great recognition of our team and its ability to build truly transformative AI technology on a large scale, and it is also a great achievement of our company.
The demand for AI computing is huge and continues to grow. There is still a lot of work to be done in improving efficiency, resilience, and computing power to unlock the full potential of AI.
Joining SoftBank gives us a partner that can help the Graphcore team redefine the landscape of AI technology.
According to foreign media TechCrunch, NigelToon confirmed to the outside world that Graphcore will not carry out layoffs after this acquisition and is considering increasing the number of employees in the UK.
Related readings:
The UK version of NVIDIA Graphcore becomes a drowning person under the AI wave: Selling assets to seek 500 million US dollars in financing
The UK NVIDIA chipmaker Graphcore is facing difficulties such as layoffs and expanding losses, and plans to raise funds for survival.
Graphcore releases 7nm-level second-generation IPU with 8 times performance improvement.