Yes. SoftBank Group acquired AI chip designer Graphcore on July 11, 2024, after earlier reports described advanced talks. Graphcore said it would become a wholly owned subsidiary and continue operating under its own name. The acquisition announcement did not disclose the purchase price.
Did SoftBank buy Graphcore?
Yes. Graphcore announced on July 11, 2024, that SoftBank Group had acquired the company. SoftBank’s 2025 annual report later stated that it acquired Graphcore in July 2024, confirming the outcome in the parent company’s reporting.
Before the deal was confirmed, CRN reported Bloomberg’s account of advanced negotiations based on anonymous sources. CRN cautioned at the time that no final agreement was imminent and discussions could fail. That report described talks, not a completed transaction.
Graphcore said it would become a wholly owned subsidiary while continuing to operate under the Graphcore name. Its co-founder and CEO, Nigel Toon, called the acquisition “a tremendous endorsement of our team and their ability to build truly transformative AI technologies at scale.” That was Toon’s characterization of the deal.
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How much did SoftBank pay for Graphcore?
The reviewed official acquisition announcement does not state a purchase price. A reported $2.8 billion valuation for Graphcore in 2020 is a historical valuation, not evidence of the amount SoftBank paid in 2024. The available sources do not establish the deal’s value, so a specific purchase-price figure should not be treated as confirmed.
What does Graphcore make?
Graphcore is a Bristol, UK-based company that designs, develops, and commercializes chips for artificial intelligence and machine learning. SoftBank’s Q1 FY2024 earnings presentation lists Graphcore as established in 2016 and identified Nigel Toon as its CEO at that time.
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What is an IPU?
Graphcore calls its processor an Intelligence Processing Unit, or IPU. CRN described the architecture as designed for AI applications and “fine-grained parallelism.” That explains the company’s design approach; it does not establish that IPUs outperform GPUs generally. A meaningful accelerator comparison depends on the workload, software ecosystem, system availability, workload-specific performance evidence, and total system cost. The cited sources provide no comparable benchmarks or pricing on those factors.
What do the reported financial figures say—and not say?
CRN reported figures drawn from Graphcore’s UK public filings for 2022: revenue declined 46 percent to $2.7 million, and headcount fell 21.7 percent to 494 employees. CRN attributed slower system sales to deteriorating macroeconomic conditions. These are dated historical figures, not measures of Graphcore’s current financial or operational position.
Can individuals buy Graphcore chips or use them in the cloud?
CRN reported that Graphcore’s business had mainly revolved around selling IPU systems and that, from 2022, the company pursued cloud access through Gcore in Europe and Paperspace in North America. It also reported that Graphcore had ended its channel partner program while continuing to work with channel partners.
Those reports are historical, not confirmation of current availability. They do not establish that either cloud provider currently offers Graphcore systems, that the hardware is available to individual buyers, or that a partner or affiliate program is active. Check directly with the relevant provider for present availability and terms.
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Sources
- CRN’s report on the reported negotiations and historical business figures: SoftBank In Advanced Talks To Buy AI Chip Designer Graphcore: Report.
- Graphcore’s July 11, 2024 acquisition announcement: Graphcore joins SoftBank Group.
- SoftBank Group Q1 FY2024 earnings presentation, listing Graphcore’s business profile and establishment year: Q1 FY2024 earnings presentation.
- SoftBank Group annual report confirming the July 2024 acquisition: Annual report 2025.
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