SoftBank Group has acquired the operations of Graphcore, a British company that produces accelerators for artificial intelligence, without disclosing the value of the deal. Founded in 2016 by Nigel Toon and Simon Knowles, the duo previously founded Icera, a 3G modem chip manufacturer that was sold to NVIDIA in 2011.
Graphcore’s chips, known as Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs), are designed for parallel processing, consisting of numerous sub-chips to enhance machine learning processing. While Microsoft Azure has utilized Graphcore’s chips in the past, the company has struggled to compete in the AI boom era compared to NVIDIA, resulting in the decision to sell its operations.
SoftBank, having previously owned Arm, a British chip company, is no stranger to acquiring chip companies from the UK. Following the acquisition, Graphcore will become a subsidiary of SoftBank but will continue its operations as usual.
TLDR: SoftBank Group has acquired Graphcore, a British AI accelerator chip manufacturer, with plans for business continuity under its ownership.
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