Robert Bosch Venture Capital leads investment in Graphcore
New technology to deliver acceleration for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications
- Graphcore platform to increase computing performance and efficiency of machine intelligence by up to 100 times.
- Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) is joined by institutional investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Draper Esprit plc, Foundation Capital and Pitango Ventures.
Stuttgart, Germany – Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, has completed an investment in Graphcore Ltd. The systems and silicon company based in Bristol, UK, has created the Intelligent Processing Unit (IPU). IPU accelerates machine intelligence, making it faster and easier to deliver artificial intelligence applications. Dr. Hongquan Jiang, Investment Partner at Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, explains: “Graphcore has developed a unique technology that has massive potential in the fast emerging market for deep learning. A new processor technology is needed for intelligent systems and Graphcore’s approach is the first which really delivers the performance and efficiency needed. We are excited to lead this very significant investment round.”
Outstanding technology for machine intelligence
The company will bring the technology to market in 2017 with an IPU-Appliance™ to power machine intelligence applications in cloud and enterprise datacenters. “Artificial intelligence is one of the key focus fields of RBVC. We are very excited to have Graphcore as a strategic investment in our portfolio of machine learning companies, which contains companies such as ADASWorks. We strongly believe that the IPU technology could revolutionize multiple industry segments in the near future” says Dr. Ingo Ramesohl, Managing director at RBVC, “There will be much potential for collaboration and synergy between Bosch and Graphcore.”
Graphcore also plans to make its IPU technology available for embedded applications including automated cars, collaborative robots and intelligent mobile devices.
Artificial intelligence to impact people’s life
Graphcore CEO and co-founder, Nigel Toon, says: “Machine intelligence will have a bigger impact on our lives over the next 10 years than mobile technology has had in the last two decades. The IPU is the first processor specifically designed for machine intelligence.” Next generation machine intelligence will allow Graphcore to translate foreign languages in real-time, help diagnose illnesses and develop personalized treatments, control robots that clean houses and offices, drive cars autonomously and provide people with intelligent digital assistants.
About Graphcore
Graphcore is a hardware systems company developing IPU-Accelerator™ cards and IPU-Appliance™ products that will accelerate machine learning applications.
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