Graphcore develops Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs), a specialized processor architecture designed to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. The company's IPUs provide an alternative to GPUs for AI training and inference, offering custom silicon optimized for graph-based computation and neural networks. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Bristol, UK, Graphcore achieved unicorn status in 2020 with a $1.7B valuation. The company was acquired by SoftBank Group in July 2024.
Graphcore has been acquired
This company is no longer available on our private secondary market.
Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Founded
2016
Employees
501–1,000
Total Funding
$1.18B
7 rounds
Latest Valuation
$0.5B
Jul 12, 2024
Stepped down as Co-Founder/Executive Chair; Marcus McElroy now leads Graphcore post-SoftBank acquisition.
Leadership transition under SoftBank ownership; watch for strategic direction shifts.
Received $457M capital injection from parent SoftBank (single share issued Apr 10, 2026) for AGI/AI-compute buildout.
Parent-funded runway extension post-acquisition; not an arm's-length priced round.
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Total raised $1.18B across 7 rounds
Last updated 09-17-2026
| Date | Round | Amount Raised | Valuation | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 12, 2024 | Acquisition | $500M | $0.5B | SoftBank Group |
| Dec 2020 | Series E2 | $222M | $2.77B | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan |
| Feb 2020 | Series E | $150M | $1.95B | Baillie Gifford |
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Entry · Series D
$1.7B
Dec 2018
Graphcore today
$500M
Jul 2024 · latest mark
Graphcore multiple
0.3x
valuation uplift since first round
Y-axis is logarithmic. Hollow dots = estimated valuations. Does not represent realized investor returns.
Marcus McElroy
General Manager
Nick Bishop
Chief Financial Officer
John Walsh
Chief Operating Officer
Sally Doherty
Chief Marketing Officer
Chelsea Coates
Chief People Officer
Tim Ramsdale
SVP Silicon
Rami Sinno
SVP Systems
Helen Byrne
VP AI Technology
Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.
NVIDIA
Leading GPU manufacturer dominating the AI accelerator market with CUDA ecosystem and H100/H200 GPUs.
Groq
AI chip startup developing Language Processing Units (LPUs) focused on inference throughput and deterministic latency.
Cerebras Systems
AI accelerator company building wafer-scale processors for AI training and scientific computing.
SambaNova Systems
AI chip maker developing reconfigurable dataflow units (RDUs) for AI training and enterprise workloads.
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