Graphcore
graphcore.ai Bristol UK company
- Headquarters
- Bristol
- Sector
- semiconductors
- Incorporated
- 2016
What does Graphcore do?
Graphcore designs the Intelligence Processing Unit, a processor architecture built specifically for machine learning rather than adapted from graphics. Founded in Bristol, it was acquired by SoftBank in 2024 and remains one of the most significant pieces of UK AI hardware engineering.
How does Graphcore work?
Built the Intelligence Processing Unit around many small cores with local memory, a genuinely different architecture from a GPU rather than a variation on one.
What does Graphcore offer?
IPU hardware and the Poplar software stack, now under SoftBank ownership.
Who runs Graphcore?
Graphcore has 5 currently appointed directors.
- Marcus William Mcelroy
- Ippei Mimura
- Jared Patrick Roscoe
- Simon Christian Knowles
- Nigel Jurgen Toon
Currently appointed officers only, from the Companies House register. Directors who have resigned are excluded — naming someone who left as running the company is worse than naming nobody.
Where is Graphcore based?
Graphcore is headquartered in Bristol, outside London. It was incorporated in 2016.
Why does Graphcore matter to a UK operator?
The cautionary tale worth knowing. Graphcore built genuinely original AI hardware in Bristol, could not win against Nvidia's software ecosystem, and sold to SoftBank — a reminder that technical merit does not settle a platform fight.
Company record
Registered as GRAPHCORE LIMITED, company 10185006, a private limited company, incorporated on 17 May 2016. Registered office: Carpenter Court 1 Maple Road, Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire, United Kingdom, SK7 2DH. SIC 62090 - Other information technology service activities.
Looked up on the register. Of the first 83 numbers supplied to this directory, 12 belonged to entirely different businesses.
What else is Torus tracking near Graphcore?
3 other UK companies working in semiconductors: