Struggling British AI Champion Graphcore Explores Foreign Sale

The British microchip champion Graphcore is exploring a sale to foreign owners after struggling to cash in on the artificial intelligence boom.

Senior investors have marked up the value of their stakes in the company, potentially indicating a deal worth more than £400m. The sale would be reviewed by national security officials amid growing scrutiny of AI technology.

Graphcore has struggled for sales of its “intelligence processing units”, a rival to the graphics processing units sold by Nvidia. It said last year that it needed to secure new funding after revenues fell by 46% and losses widened.

The recent boom in AI has meant semiconductor companies needing to spend huge sums to develop high-end chips. Graphcore, having raised over £600m, will need more than double that to compete with industry giants, according to analysts.