Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon is confident the AI chip designer can grow as an independent business and says the company is ultimately targeting a public listing as it aims to take on the big players in the market and play a part in bolstering Europe’s digital sovereignty.
Toon, who co-founded Graphcore in 2016 and has helped it grow to a valuation of $2.8bn, has no intention of seeing his company fall into foreign ownership, a fate which has befallen many British technology companies including the country’s leading chip designer, Arm. Instead, he has long-term designs on an IPO: “Our investors are some of the world’s biggest technology investors, these are not people who are trading in and out, they believe in [our] story,” he told Tech Monitor. “They’re investing for the long term and ultimately they’ve invested in us as a private company because they see the possibility for us to become public, long term and independent. That’s our goal.”