Britain’s public investment institutions have backed a funding round for Fractile, an AI chip developer based in London and Bristol, as the government seeks to reduce reliance on overseas technology.
The UK Government said the Series C exceeded £500 million and valued Fractile above £5 billion. Its announcement gave no exact pound figure. The round was backed by the Sovereign AI Venture Fund and British Business Bank, but the government did not disclose either institution’s contribution.
Fractile founder and CEO Walter Goodwin said in a LinkedIn post that the company raised $720 million, with Thrive Capital, Lightspeed, Redpoint and Founders Fund leading the round. Goodwin said the funding would help the company move faster toward shipping its chips. The government also named CapitalG, Lightspeed and Redpoint among investors. Reuters separately reported a $7 billion valuation, citing a person involved in the deal.
The government says the investment fits a broader effort to reduce reliance on technology developed abroad and keep skilled jobs and more economic value in Britain. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said commercial development and wealth from British scientific work have often been realized elsewhere. “We are determined to change that,” he said.
In making its case, the government pointed to Alan Turing’s computing work and Arm’s creation as examples of British contributions. It described Fractile’s goal as developing AI hardware that is faster, more energy-efficient and less costly. Those are stated aims for the technology and policy.
Fractile is developing hardware and software for AI inference, the stage when a model generates a response. Goodwin said the company plans to ship its first chips and systems in 2027, but did not give a specific date.
