As the global race to build the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence accelerates, SoftBank is pouring more money into British chipmaker Graphcore after acquiring the once high-flying Nvidia rival last year, underscoring CEO Masayoshi Son’s growing ambition to dominate the next era of AI hardware, data centers, and artificial general intelligence.
Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group has injected $457 million into British artificial intelligence chipmaker Graphcore as it ramps up investments in AI infrastructure and hardware.
Graphcore, which SoftBank acquired in 2024, issued a single share valued at $457 million on April 10, according to a filing with the U.K.’s Companies House. A Graphcore spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the funding came from SoftBank. SoftBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest funding is part of SoftBank’s broader push into artificial intelligence, which has included multibillion-dollar investments in AI companies and infrastructure projects. At the time of the acquisition, SoftBank said Graphcore would collaborate on the development of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, referring to systems that can match or surpass human intelligence.
The latest injection represented only a “portion” of the funding Graphcore expects to receive from SoftBank this year.
Once viewed as a potential rival to Nvidia, Graphcore raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors but struggled to achieve widespread commercial adoption before being bought by SoftBank.
Since the acquisition, SoftBank has deepened its AI ambitions, including participating in the $500 billion Stargate infrastructure project alongside OpenAI and Oracle Corporation.
The company is also reportedly planning to launch a standalone AI and robotics company in the United States as early as this year, according to the Financial Times. Bloomberg reported on Monday that SoftBank is in talks over a major AI data center project in France.
SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son previously described Graphcore as “a company with deep expertise in chip design, which further builds on Arm’s leadership in semiconductor IP.”
SoftBank acquired a majority stake in Arm Holdings in 2016 before the chip designer listed on Nasdaq in 2023. The Japanese firm also acquired silicon design company Ampere Computing in 2025.
Last October, Graphcore said it would invest up to 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) to build a new AI campus in Bengaluru, India, and is hiring for hundreds of roles across AI, silicon, software and systems engineering.
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Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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