SoftBank Group has acquired British semiconductor startup Graphcore, as the Japanese firm seeks to strengthen its investments in chips and artificial intelligence (AI).
The companies announced the deal on Friday without disclosing financial terms. Bristol-based Graphcore will operate as a SoftBank subsidiary and keep its management team, Nigel Toon, Graphcore’s chief executive officer, told reporters in a briefing.
It’s the second U.K. semiconductor company that SoftBank’s snapped up, and follows its 2016 takeover of Cambridge-based Arm Holdings, the chip designer whose technology is found in almost all of the world’s smartphones. Graphcore was frequently held up as a champion of the U.K. tech industry — it participated in the country’s inaugural AI safety summit last year. But Toon has been openly critical of the government’s lack of support for the industry.
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