Photo by Luke Powell and Jody Hudson Powell on Creative Review
Photo on Graphcore

Simon Knowles

CTO

Graphcore

POSITION

CTO

COMPANY

Graphcore

COUNTRY

UK

Website

Graphcore

SCENE

Business

SOCIAL

LinkedIn

Twitter

What makes Simon Knowles a Global Shaker?

Simon Knowles is a man that believes that in the capability of processor architecture on computer chips. He says building processors is difficult, but not as difficult as building the software to run them.

He is the co-founder and CTO of Graphcore, a semiconductor company that has designed a revolutionary processor to accelerate AI and machine learning. Knowles has labeled these chips IPUs, whereas Google has called them TPUs. He jokingly admits that they will end up being called TPUs due to the sheer size of his competitor.

The company recently secured $50 million in funding in a financing led by Sequoia Capital.

Simon has a master’s in electrical science from Cambridge University. He has previously co-founded and exited semiconductor companies Element14 and Icera, which sold for a combined value of $1 billion. Simon is also the author of 14 patents.

Last updated: April 11, 2019