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At sufficient scale, the computational complexity of machine learning model training overwhelms general-purpose CPUs. The work will get done; it might just take a long time. Data scientists and machine learning researchers have long used graphics processing units (GPUs) because of their highly parallelized architecture and relatively abundant on-chip memory available.

But as industry and research groups alike seek more efficiency and need to accommodate ever-larger quantities of information, more specialized computing hardware is required for the task.

Headquartered in Bristol, U.K., is in the business of producing silicon purpose-built for munching through machine-learning math at high rates of speed and using less electricity than GPUs. Benchmarks for Graphcore’s (IPU) that it offers notably less latency and higher computational throughput, and uses less power than GPUs.

The company that it raised an additional $150 million in fresh investor capital in an extension of its Series D round. The extension was led by ; new investors and joined in as well. The deal also saw participation from a number of prior investors. The was closed in December 2018, netting the company $200 million.

The Series D extension values Graphcore at $1.95 billion, according to the company. Taken together, the company has raised $460 million, according to Crunchbase data. The company’s shareholders include the likes of , , , various associated with , , and , among .

In a press release provided to Crunchbase News by the company, Graphcore highlighted a number of milestones from 2019. In partnership with strategic investor Dell Technologies, the companies co-developed and launched the DSS8440, a production-ready server built around Graphcore’s IPUs. Alongside Microsoft, another strategic investor, the company launched the Microsoft Azure IPU-Cloud service, as well as the IPU-Bare Metal Cloud service it launched in partnership with . The company’s publicly announced customers include Microsoft, , Carmot Capital, and European search engine company .

The company says the new round brings its cash reserves up to $300 million. Graphcore has plotted for itself an ambitious growth plan. According to its press release, the company has devoted significant resources to research and development efforts. The company doubled headcount in its Bristol headquarters, as well as its engineering center in Oslo, Norway. It says its sales and support office in Palo Alto, California also saw similar up-scaling in 2019. The company also opened a new sales, support and engineering office in Beijing, alongside an engineering center in Cambridge, U.K., and an operations facility in Taiwan.

“Demand for our Intelligence Processor Unit products is increasing at existing and new customers and the outlook for our business in Fiscal 2020 is extremely positive. The major investments that we have made during 2018 and 2019 will help us to meet this strong demand by extending the capabilities of our technology and ecosystem, and will support long-term revenue growth and returns for our investors,” said Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon in a statement.

The company declined to answer questions from Crunchbase News about its revenue and profitability, whether it has its own fabrication facilities, what the company’s future exit prospects might look like and whether it may be affected by Brexit or the emerging SARS-CoV-2 virus situation in Asia.

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Happy Tuesday from the blisteringly cold East Coast. It’s so frigid here that I wouldn’t mind a recession as I have no intention of ever leaving the house. So whatever , I refuse to worry.

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Regardless, we have three key pieces of news from the overlapping magisteria of technology companies and money: the birth of a new unicorn, the death of an old unicorn, and a double-down bet by the tech industry on scooters. Let’s get into it.

Unicorn Death, Unicorn Birth

While the idea of “one in, one out” is , it’s utter bunk in practice. Except for when reality lines up with cliche. Days like today, for example.

Starting with the out, is dead. The firm, which , is now essentially bankrupt. According , the startup, which was once worth as much as $1.5 billion, burned through “an emergency $5 million round of funding” after losing $44 million in calendar 2017. A pivot to the business space wasn’t enough to save the augmented-reality shop.

Given the lingering nascency of AR even as VR seems to , Blippar’s end isn’t a huge surprise.

But the result must be a material disappointment for its investors (, , , ) who are now likely to see little for their capital. Precisely why the company died is more complicated than an undeveloped market, however. It seems that investor in-fighting to Blippar’s death.

Moving on to the in, say hello to what I suspect is the world’s newest unicorn: . The UK-based AI chip company raised $200 million at a $1.5 billion pre-money valuation ($1.7 billion post-money), picking up cash from ,��,��,�� and , among others. A host of folks wanted a piece of the company.

According to Bloomberg, the firm the $1 billion valuation mark the last time it raised, . Sequoia led that one, but Graphcore’s prior valuation means that its horn is new.

So, that’s one new unicorn and one dead unicorn. One in, one out.

Scooters

Another supergiant round caught my eye this morning, a $100 million investment into , an India scooter company. Before the new capital, Vogo had raised a mere $8.1 million (), making the new infusion huge in comparison.

There’s more to chew on here than just new monies for two-wheeled mobile delights. As :

“We’re familiar with  cozying up to scooter startups — �����Ի��� — but over in India, the U.S. firm’s key rival is hatching a major alliance of its own it invested $100 million in scooter rental startup .”

Russell goes on to note that Ola took part in Vogo’s preceding . What all that means is that India, a , is now more competitive (Uber is in the country). For the American company hurtling towards an IPO, the news can’t be welcome.

Uber is rumored to be a potential acquirer for domestic scooter companies and has made its own strategic investment into Lime, a global micro mobility company most famous for scooters. Perhaps the Ola-Vogo deal will make that outcome more likely?

Anyway, that’s enough for one morning. And it’s quite a lot for the day a week before Christmas. Like we’ve been saying, so much for a seasonal slowdown.

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