SoftBank’s Graphcore To Invest $1.2 Bn In India, Set Up Campus In Bengaluru

SoftBank-owned semiconductor company Graphcore has announced plans to invest up to £1 Bn (about $1.2 Bn or INR 11,860 Cr) in India over the next decade.

As part of its India push, the company is also setting up an AI engineering campus in Bengaluru. This would create 500 semiconductor engineering jobs in India and significantly scale Graphcore’s global operations, the UK-based semiconductor company said.

The new AI campus will focus on developing advanced AI computing hardware. “Graphcore’s engineers in Bengaluru will be developing semiconductor products for use by the world’s leading AI practitioners – to help solve global challenges in drug discovery and public health, environmental sustainability and to improve business productivity,” it added.

Graphcore has already started hiring for the first 100 AI semiconductor engineering roles in India, including silicon logical design, physical design, verification, characterisation and bring-up. 

Founded by Nigel Toon and Simon Knowles in 2016, UK-based Graphcore specialises in developing a complete AI compute stack, including silicon, data centre infrastructure and software. The company was acquired by SoftBank in 2024. 

After this acquisition, SoftBank Group unveiled several AI computing infrastructure initiatives, including the $500 Bn Stargate project developed in collaboration with OpenAI and Oracle. Now, via Graphcore, the Japanese investor is expanding its reach in India.

Notably, SoftBank has invested more than $12 Bn in Indian startups, including Swiggy, Delhivery, Paytm, PB Fintech, FirstCry, Ola Electric, and Eternal, till date.

This comes at a time when global tech giants are setting up teams in India to tap into the country’s talent base. Most of the global tech companies have global capability centres (GCCs) in India.

Besides, owing to the sharp rise in the adoption of AI in the country, a number of AI companies are looking to establish their presence in India. While ChatGPT parent OpenAI and Anthropic are gearing up to open their offices in India, Perplexity is looking to set up its engineering team in Hyderabad or Bengaluru. 

Earlier, global chipmaker NVIDIA signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up  an AI university in the state. Additionally, NVIDIA will also assist the government in setting up new ‘AI factories’ in the state by providing insights from its global operations.

As per an Inc42 report, India’s semiconductor market is expected to reach the $150 Bn mark by 2030, with AI semiconductor market opportunity grabbing more than $21 Bn by that time period.