The risk of the UK losing tech darlings like Graphcore should come as no surprise to a country whose manufacturing sector has been shrinking for the last 18 months. It’s time for self-reckoning, and for the UK to ask where its strength lies.
Graphcore may have struggled to sell its Nvidia-rival chips, but letting its intellectual property (IP) leave for foreign shores – as recent reports have indicated is a possibility – would be a blow to UK innovation and manufacturing.
Graphcore has faced its challenges, including 2022 losses that rose by 11% to $204.6m. But we mustn’t see a repeat of a British chip firm falling out of British ownership.
Just a few months ago, Cambridge-based chip designer Arm opted to list its shares on the Nasdaq exchange in New York, drawn by the greater scale and liquidity of the American market. This decision, coupled with Rishi Sunak’s failed efforts to persuade Arm to remain on home soil, raised concerns....