Graphcore rehires after its acquisition by SoftBank: what do the new positions indicate about its future priorities?

Graphcore has revealed plans for a new hiring process that will increase its workforce by 20%, shortly after being acquired by SoftBank. The British artificial intelligence chip firm has opened 75 positions spanning various functions, including data center infrastructure management, hardware engineering, and silicon design.

Graphcore's CEO, Nigel Toon, emphasized that this is an opportunity for those with expertise in areas such as silicon, systems, and software to contribute to the forefront of their field. This recruitment effort will take place across all Graphcore offices around the world, which include locations in UK cities like Bristol, Cambridge, and London, as well as offices in Gdansk, Poland, and Hsinchu, Taiwan.

The acquisition of Graphcore by SoftBank, finalized in July 2024, has been seen by Toon as a “tremendous backing” for the company. While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, it is believed that the transaction was around $600 million, in contrast to the roughly $2.5 billion valuation it had in 2020.

In its statement, the company emphasized its commitment to investing in the creation of skilled jobs across various disciplines following the acquisition. The new positions reflect the company's future plans, especially regarding chip design. Of the 75 jobs available, 10 are dedicated to silicon engineering, suggesting an increase in the development of their next generation of chips.

So far, Graphcore has three generations of silicon, the latest being the Bow Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), launched in 2022. This processor offers up to 350 teraflops of computing power for artificial intelligence and shows a 40% increase in performance and a 16% improvement in energy efficiency compared to its predecessor. However, unlike other processors on the market, Graphcore's IPUs do not use high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology but rely on internal SRAM.

With the large number of open positions in the silicon design department, there is a possibility that Graphcore is considering changing its design to incorporate HBM capabilities. Similarly, the roles announced in the areas of infrastructure solutions and software could indicate a shift in the company's strategy, focusing more on data center capabilities. This trend is not isolated, as competitors like Nvidia and AMD have also been developing their own software and infrastructure options to keep pace in the growing AI market.