Imagination Technologies bags $100m in private investment

The investment is the latest development in a long and twisty story. Until 2017, Imagination was a publicly-listed company. But then  private equity firm Canyon Bridge took the company private. However, Canyon Bridge's main shareholder is China Reform, a state-backed entity. 

The Chinese connection got the attention of the UK government, which summoned Imagination execs to appear before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the British parliament in 2020. In 2021, the Daily Telegraph reported that Imagination had lost a number of senior executives amid claims that the firm's Beijing backers were planning to appoint representatives to its board. 

Now, Imagination Technologies has new Abu Dhabi backers: Fortress Investment Group is majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund Mubadala Capital. Under the terms of this new agreement, Fortress has provided Imagination with a $100 million convertible term loan.

Imagination’s latest products include the APXM-6200 CPU, a performance-dense RISC-V application processor with artificial intelligence, is designed to support the compute and intuitive user experience needs for next generation consumer and industrial devices. It also announced IMG DXD, a scalable GPU IP with support for DirectX, which powers desktop, laptop and cloud gaming graphics experiences.

Ray Bingham, Executive Chair of Imagination Technologies, said in a press release: "We are thrilled that Fortress has chosen to invest in Imagination. This investment comes with a shared commitment to drive Imagination’s innovation in GPU, CPU and AI, and to help us accelerate growth, drive significant advancements, and deliver unparalleled IP value to customers.”