SoftBank acquires UK chipmaker Graphcore as it pushes into AI

Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank acquired British AI chip startup Graphcore. Softbank’s owner, top investor Masayoshi Son, is looking to make his company a key player in the evolution of the increasingly pivotal technology.

SoftBank is believed to have paid over $600 million in the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported, far less than Graphcore’s peak valuation of $2.8 billion in 2020, though the figure has not been officially confirmed.

Breaking into the AI chip industry won’t be easy and will likely require a significant investment, the Journal noted — the area is dominated by American giant Nvidia, which controls an estimated 80% of the market.

But SoftBank’s previous AI bets, notably in another British chip company called Arm, have largely paid off. Arm has tripled in value since it went public last year thanks to the excitement of the stock market, and it’s now the “crown jewel” of SoftBank’s AI push, the Financial Times said. Son likely aims to replicate this success.