UK chipmaker Graphcore gains unicorn status with $200m funding from BMW and Microsoft

UK artificial intelligence chipmaker Graphcore has raised a $200m (£158.1m) series D funding round from BMW and Microsoft, valuing the firm at $1.7bn.

The round brings Graphcore's total amount raised to date to over $300m, with its new investors joining existing backers such as electronics founder Robert Bosch, Dell and Samsung Electronics. The round was led by London venture capital firm Atomico, with fellow listed venture fund Draper Esprit also following on.

Graphcore's processor is built for machine learning and artificial intelligence, which began shipping to customers this year. Spurred on by growing revenues, the company said it is tripling the size of its team and opened new offices in London, California and Beijing this year.

The funding will be used to further expand the company geographically and accelerate scaling of the business.

The Bristol-based startup joins the ranks of so-called unicorn companies – privately-held firms worth over $1bn – which includes several recent British additions such as digital bank Monzo. The UK was named Europe's tech unicorn capital earlier this year, with London housing more than a fifth of all unicorns on the continent.

"Machine intelligence marks the start of a new age of computing which needs a radically different type of processor and software tools," said Graphcore co-founder and chief executive Nigel Toon. 

"This new, fast growing market creates the opportunity for Graphcore to build a major global technology company that can help innovators in AI achieve important breakthroughs."