UK chipmaker Imagination Technologies up for sale — UKCT accuses current owners of stripping the company of its key technologies
Moore Threads, Innosilicon, and Biren Technologies thought to be major beneficiaries of the IP.

British GPU and AI processing company Imagination Technologies has reportedly been put up for sale by its current owner, Canyon Bridge Capital Partners. According to a Bloomberg report, Canyon Bridge tapped financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard Inc. to find a buyer, and the latter has already received some inquiries about the company. The private equity fund hopes to recoup the GBP 550 million (approximately $690 million today) investment it made to purchase the chipmaker in 2017.
Imagination hit its peak in 2012, in terms of valuation, when it was worth nearly GBP 2 billion. However, it put itself up for sale some five years later, after one of its biggest partners, Apple Inc., said that it would stop using the company for its graphics chips in the iPhone and its other products by 2019. This was when Canyon Bridge snapped up the company at a discount, and now it’s offering it for sale after eight years, which is about the end of its fixed term.
Although it no longer sells its chips to Apple, Imagination still has some prominent customers, like Texas Instruments and MediaTek, which primarily uses Imagination’s tech for in-car chips. Google is also reportedly Imagination’s customer, helping it build its Android GPU Inspector tool. However, a research paper released in December by UK-China Transparency, a charitable incorporated organization, asserts that Chinese companies have pillaged Imagination Technologies’ intellectual properties to advance their domestic chip development.
According to the UKCT report (PDF), Canyon Bridge is backed by state-owned China Reform Fund Management. It is accused of allowing some of Imagination’s core assets to be transferred to Chinese chip makers Moore Threads, Innosilicon, and Biren Technology. It was also widely reported that China Reform attempted to take over Imagination’s governance in 2020 through an emergency board meeting. This meeting was supposedly set to appoint four nominees set by the Chinese fund as directors but was canceled after receiving significant backlash from the British government and the public.
However, Imagination has denied any wrongdoing, with the company saying that it has always complied with regulations and adhered to industry standards. It also said that it would not make any sense at all for the company to sell its core expertise and allow its customers to build their own GPUs. But whatever the case, Canyon Bridge believes that it can sell Imagination Technologies for a handsome sum. The former believes that Nvidia’s massive increase in market capitalization could also translate into a strong interest in Imagination Technologies.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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thth
But why would another Chinese company try to buy it though. It is already owned by Chinese and they are selling it obviously because it is not a safe investment for the Chinese to hold on to. UK now has a law that allows them to force foreign investors to divest from companies that they feel is critical to national security.gg83 said:I wonder who will be allowed to by them? I don't see a Chinese company being allowed.
They have already forced Nexperia (A Dutch company owned by the Chinese) to sell Newport Wafer Fab. And that fab is a small fab that makes legacy chips on a decades old process node.
Imagination Tech licenses GPU IP which is one of the most significant areas in today's semiconductor and several Chinese AI Chip startups license IP from this company. Sooner or later the UK or US government is gonna come after this company if it is held by Chinese. -
gg83
Thanks for clarifying. I was very mistaken. It makes more sense now.thth said:But why would another Chinese company try to buy it though. It is already owned by Chinese and they are selling it obviously because it is not a safe investment for the Chinese to hold on to. UK now has a law that allows them to force foreign investors to divest from companies that they feel is critical to national security.
They have already forced Nexperia (A Dutch company owned by the Chinese) to sell Newport Wafer Fab. And that fab is a small fab that makes legacy chips on a decades old process node.
Imagination Tech licenses GPU IP which is one of the most significant areas in today's semiconductor and several Chinese AI Chip startups license IP from this company. Sooner or later the UK or US government is gonna come after this company if it is held by Chinese.