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SoftBank has invested more than $450 million in Graphcore, the British AI chip company it acquired in 2024.
The funding was first reported by CNBC, citing a Graphcore spokesperson. According to the spokesperson, Graphcore issued a single share valued at $457 million on April 10, based on a Companies House filing.
Table of Contents
- SoftBank Puts More Money Behind Graphcore
- Graphcore Gets a Second Act Under SoftBank
- Why SoftBank Wants More AI Hardware
- What the New Funding Could Support
SoftBank Puts More Money Behind Graphcore
The investment appears to be part of a larger funding plan for Graphcore. A person familiar with the arrangement said the $457 million represents only a portion of the capital SoftBank is expected to put into the company this year.
SoftBank has not publicly confirmed the investment. Graphcore, which develops AI chips and systems, became a wholly owned SoftBank subsidiary after the Japanese conglomerate acquired the UK-based company in July 2024. Graphcore said at the time that it would continue operating under its own name.
Graphcore Gets a Second Act Under SoftBank
Graphcore was once positioned as a potential challenger to Nvidia, but the company struggled to turn its technology into broad commercial traction. Before its acquisition, Graphcore had raised hundreds of millions of dollars while competing in a market increasingly dominated by Nvidia’s GPUs.
SoftBank’s acquisition gave Graphcore a new owner with deep AI ambitions and existing ties to the chip market through Arm, the British semiconductor design company majority-owned by SoftBank.
At the time of the acquisition, SoftBank said Graphcore would work with the company on developing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a term used for AI systems that can match or surpass human-level capabilities.
Why SoftBank Wants More AI Hardware
The Graphcore funding comes as SoftBank continues to pour money into AI infrastructure, chips and model development.
The company has made AI a central focus of its investment strategy, including its stake in OpenAI and broader infrastructure commitments. It has also been building a larger hardware portfolio around AI computing, where demand for chips, data centers and specialized systems continues to rise.
For SoftBank, Graphcore gives it a direct foothold in AI chip development at a time when hardware access has become one of the most important constraints in the AI market.
What the New Funding Could Support
Graphcore has not detailed how the new funding will be used. But the investment could help the company rebuild its chip roadmap under SoftBank and pursue new AI systems aimed at the infrastructure needs of frontier models.
The new capital could support:
- Continued development of AI chips and systems
- Hiring and engineering work in the UK
- Integration with SoftBank’s broader AI infrastructure strategy
- Potential collaboration with other SoftBank-backed AI and chip assets
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The scale of the investment suggests SoftBank still sees strategic value in Graphcore’s technology, even after the company struggled to break through as an independent chipmaker.