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
450–550
Total Funding
$1.18B
7 rounds
Latest Valuation
$0.5B
Jul 12, 2024
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Total raised $1.18B across 7 rounds
Last updated 06-25-2026
| 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.
Nigel Toon
CEO & Co-Founder
Simon Knowles
CTO & Co-Founder
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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