Graphcore's AI chips now backed by Atomico, DeepMind's Hassabis

Co-founder and CEO Nigel Toon laughs at that interview opener -- perhaps because he sold his previous company to the chipmaker back in 2011. "I'm sure Nvidia will be successful as well," he ventures. "They're already being very successful in this market… And being a viable competitor and standing alongside them, I think that would be a worthy aim for ourselves." Toon also flags what he couches an "interesting absence" in the competitive landscape vis-a-vis other major players "that you'd expect to be there" -- e.g. A recent report by analyst Gartner suggests AI technologies will be in almost every software product by 2020.