Softbank
Founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate and one of the world's largest technology investors. Its Vision Fund 1 ($98.6B, launched 2017) was the largest tech focused venture fund in history, backed by Saudi Arabia's PIF and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. Vision Fund 2 ($56B) followed in 2019. Across both funds the portfolio spans 343 companies, producing 129 unicorns, 45 IPOs, and 35 acquisitions, including DoorDash, Flipkart, and Swiggy. In 2025, SoftBank committed $30B to OpenAI and co-founded the $500B Stargate AI infrastructure project alongside Oracle and MGX.
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2 companies in our directory
Wayve
HiringWayve is a London-based autonomous driving company pioneering an AI-first approach to self-driving vehicles. Rather than relying on detailed 3D maps and hand-coded rules, Wayve uses end-to-end deep learning so its AI driver learns directly from camera data and real-world driving experience. The company has partnered with major automakers and logistics firms to bring its technology to production vehicles. Backed by SoftBank, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Uber, Wayve closed a landmark $1.05B Series C in 2024, the largest ever AI funding round by a European company at the time, and has been in discussions for a potential $2B follow-on round.
Graphcore
HiringGraphcore is a Bristol-based AI semiconductor company founded in 2016 by serial semiconductor entrepreneurs Nigel Toon and Simon Knowles. Toon previously led XMOS and Picochip, while Knowles co-founded Element14 (acquired by Broadcom) and Icera (acquired by NVIDIA for $435M). The company developed Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs), novel AI accelerators designed from the ground up for machine learning workloads, alongside the proprietary Poplar graph programming framework. Graphcore raised $767M in total funding, reaching a $2.77B valuation, with backing from Sequoia Capital, Atomico, Amadeus, Microsoft, and others. In July 2024, SoftBank Group acquired Graphcore for approximately $500M to $600M. The company continues to operate from Bristol with plans to expand its UK headcount to 750.