Bristol-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip maker Graphcore has been acquired by Japanese investment giant SoftBank for an undisclosed amount, it was revealed on Friday.
The company will be the latest British technology company to be acquired by SoftBank, having bought Cambridge-based semiconductor designer Arm for £24 billion in 2016.
Graphcore will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank and will continue to operate under the Graphcore name.
Read more: Bristol-based unicorn Graphcore joins European project to build AI supercomputing framework
Nigel Toon, co-founder and CEO of Graphcore, said: “This is a fantastic endorsement of our team and their ability to build truly transformative AI technology at scale and a fantastic outcome for our company.”
“The demand for AI computing is huge and continues to grow. To realize AI's full potential, there is much more work to be done to improve efficiency, resiliency and computational power. SoftBank is a partner that will enable the Graphcore team to redefine the landscape of AI technology.”
Vikas J. Parekh, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, added: “Next-generation semiconductors and computing systems are critical to realizing AGI, and we are pleased to collaborate with Graphcore on this mission.”
The deal is seen as a continuation of the Tokyo-based company's efforts in AI technology and comes after the British company reportedly faced an uncertain future.
Graphcore designs and manufactures processors and software tools that support new developments in machine intelligence.
