Graphcore bets big on India’s semiconductor talent with £1 billion AI push

SoftBank-backed Graphcore is making a major bet on India’s semiconductor design capabilities with a £1 billion investment to set up an AI engineering campus in Bengaluru.

The UK-based AI compute company plans to build one of the world’s most advanced processor development centres in India, marking its biggest global expansion since being acquired by SoftBank.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Festival 2025, Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon said India would play a central role in the company’s global plans. “We’re scaling up our operations. We’re scaling up in the UK, but we’ve also taken the decision to really lean into the incredible talent that exists in India — particularly around semiconductor design — and to build a development centre in Bengaluru,” Toon said.

The company will begin operations with 100 engineers and quickly scale up to 500 over the next two years. Toon said the investment is expected to cross £1 billion over the next decade. “This is a very significant investment on our part. We’re keen to hire the very best engineers,” he said, adding that Graphcore’s India centre would mirror the scale and impact of other SoftBank-backed ventures in the region.

The Bengaluru team will work on designing next-generation AI processors using cutting-edge semiconductor technologies. “We are going to be building some of the world’s most advanced AI processors, and the team in Bengaluru will be absolutely at the centre of that,” Toon noted. The company is already working on two-nanometre and three-nanometre technologies and plans to continue pushing toward smaller geometries.

Toon emphasised that Graphcore’s entry into India is a commercial venture, not dependent on government incentives or grants. “We’re doing this as a commercial venture. We’re not relying on incentives or grants,” he said, calling the move a long-term investment in talent and innovation.

He also highlighted that India’s growing semiconductor ambitions and skilled workforce provide the right foundation for collaboration. “Hopefully, we can be a place where people come to learn the best techniques—and perhaps, in the future, they go on to use those skills elsewhere or grow within the Graphcore business,” Toon said.

Graphcore’s plans come amid a broader wave of UK-India cooperation in technology and innovation. The announcement follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s joint call at the Global Fintech Festival for deeper synergies between India’s digital public infrastructure and London’s fintech ecosystem. Graphcore’s India investment fits squarely into that vision, strengthening both nations’ collaboration in high-value tech manufacturing and AI development.

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