Softbank confirms Graphcore buy
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Softbank in Japan has confirmed that it has bought UK AI chip startup Graphcore.
Under the deal, Graphcore becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank and will continue to operate under the Graphcore name. This will sit alongside UK chip designer ARM.
“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 (above left with co-founder Simon Knowles), who recently published a book on AI. Our review is here.
“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.”
The company had raised over $710m in investment and at one point was the best funded AI chip startup in the industry. The value of the deal has not been disclosed but is reported to be around $400m, marking a substantial loss for investors, who included Dell.
It had developed a chip called Colossus with large amounts of on-chip SRAM memory on leading process technology at TSMC to handle large AI frameworks. However the company needed to build its own servers and racks, which it calls pods, and its own development tool called Poplar. It also offered an AI system to the UK government but had to cut jobs in recent years.
“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.”
The company’s headquarters remain in Bristol, with offices in Cambridge, London, Gdansk and Hsinchu.
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