Graphcore

What Graphcore does

Graphcore builds Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs) and the Poplar software stack, a massively parallel architecture designed to keep the entire ML model resident inside the processor rather than streaming it from external memory. The company was founded in 2016 in Bristol, UK by Nigel Toon (CEO) and Simon Knowles (CTO), and shipped its second-generation GC200 IPU in July 2020. NVIDIA is the explicit competitive target, with Groq and Intel as secondary rivals. Graphcore was last valued at $2.77B at the end of 2020, but its business fundamentals lagged that number badly: it reported just $2.7M in revenue and a net loss of about $205M in 2022. It is no longer an independent startup — SoftBank now owns it, which reframes the whole employment proposition from venture bet to captive subsidiary with a deep-pocketed parent.

What it is like to work at Graphcore

Core IPU engineering has been anchored in Bristol since founding, with additional hubs in London, Cambridge, Hsinchu and Gdansk. Expect on-site presence for silicon and board bring-up; software and ML-systems roles carry more hybrid flexibility. Culturally this is a slow-burn, parent-subsidiary environment rather than a sprint-to-tape-out startup, and the employee sentiment is the friendliest in this cohort: Glassdoor shows a 94% recommend rating and a 4.4 work-life-balance score. The upside is a stable, European-based engineering culture with genuinely good reviews and no obvious burnout signal. The tradeoff is that direction now answers to SoftBank's AGI thesis, not a founder's independent roadmap, so ambitious engineers should expect the pace and priorities to be set by the parent.

What Graphcore pays

Compensation here is UK-weighted and materially below US-aligned AI-chip peers such as Cerebras and Astera Labs at the same level. Levels.fyi shows UK Software Engineer packages roughly in the £42K–£74K range, and Glassdoor bands an ML Engineer around $105K–$146K with a Researcher lower still. On the higher end, a US Principal Software Engineer is estimated near $284,664, about 78% above the national average. Equity is now a SoftBank-subsidiary story rather than startup option upside, so there is no IPO-lottery dimension to weigh. Candidates should treat this as a lifestyle-and-stability trade: solid European pay and a friendly culture in exchange for accepting a real gap against US software-AI comp bands.

How hiring works at Graphcore

The early-careers path is published as: submit an application and CV, complete a video interview and/or HackerRank challenge, then attend a final-stage interview. Experienced-hire reports on r/chipdesign describe a first round with HR and the hiring manager followed by a roughly one-hour Python coding challenge. The emphasis on ML-systems and Python coding is stronger than a pure hardware-verification role would suggest, which is a useful signal about what Graphcore values. Glassdoor puts Software Engineer time-to-hire near 30 days, roughly 27 company-wide, so the loop is moderate, structured and predictable rather than a drawn-out gauntlet. Come prepared to code in Python and to reason about ML systems, not just RTL.

Growth & trajectory

Graphcore was acquired by SoftBank on July 11, 2024, with no layoffs anticipated at close across its UK, Polish and Taiwanese hubs, then received a fresh $457M SoftBank investment on May 12, 2026. Hiring velocity recovered sharply after the deal: job postings jumped from 59 in 2024 to 120 in 2025, up about 68%. Headcount sat in the 450–494 range through the acquisition period. This is a well-capitalized captive-startup trajectory — the war chest is real and the parent is committed — but the pace and ambition are governed by SoftBank's roadmap, not a standalone IPO timeline. For candidates, that means job security is high while equity-driven wealth creation is essentially off the table.

Risks to know

Before the acquisition, Graphcore cut roughly a fifth of its staff and posted a net loss around $205M in 2022 on only $2.7M of revenue, a stark reminder of how far commercial traction lagged the technology. It then confirmed layoffs and an exit from mainland China on November 23, 2024. Strategically it is now at the mercy of SoftBank priorities, so a shift in the parent's thesis could redirect the whole program. The tape-out cadence for a third-generation IPU is not publicly confirmed as of mid-2026, which leaves the near-term product roadmap carrying real execution uncertainty. Candidates should weigh a friendly, stable culture against a company whose independent commercial momentum has yet to be proven.

Who thrives at Graphcore (and who should not)

Thrives: an ML-systems or Python-fluent engineer who likes a distinct, non-NVIDIA IPU architecture, a European base, and cross-UK/Taiwan collaboration, and who values stability and a friendly culture over startup velocity. Unlike pure-software AI shops, hardware roles here mean on-site silicon and board bring-up in Bristol, not remote model work, so proximity to the lab matters. Should not apply: anyone chasing US software-AI comp in the $300K–$700K band, anyone who needs the equity-lottery upside of an independent startup, or anyone who wants NVIDIA-stack experience on their resume — Graphcore's architecture is deliberately different and does not always translate cleanly to that ecosystem.

Roles Graphcore is hiring for

The roles Graphcore is most actively hiring right now in our index, with a live count and the salary guide for each:

The full board of open roles — with comp and location on every posting — is at the top of this page.

The signals behind this page

The hiring picture here is read from 227 live Graphcore postings in our index (refreshed weekly); 54% are remote-friendly, and in a recent sample 8 disclose a pay-transparency band. The culture, growth, and interview detail above is researched and cited; the open-roles board is live from our jobs index.

Sources

• SoftBank acquires UK AI chipmaker Graphcore — TechCrunch (Jul 11, 2024)
• Japan’s SoftBank acquires British AI chipmaker Graphcore — Reuters (Jul 11, 2024)
• SoftBank invests $457M in Graphcore AI chips — CNBC (May 12, 2026)
• Graphcore Reviews (culture, ratings) — Glassdoor (2026)
• Graphcore — Wikipedia (financials, history)
• Graphcore announces layoffs and confirms exit from China (Nov 23, 2024)
• Graphcore Early Careers (interview process)
• Principal Software Engineer salaries at Graphcore — Indeed