SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to acquire Graphcore Ltd., a struggling British semiconductor startup once valued at $2.8 billion, according to people familiar with the deals.

Amid Nvidia's historic achievement of reaching a market value of US$2 trillion, attention shifts to its rivals.

British AI chip startup Graphcore is rumored to be for sale, with the asking price estimated at US$500 million. Arm, SoftBank, and OpenAI are said to be among potential buyers.