Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, the Chinese owners of Imagination Technologies, is seeking a buyer for the British semiconductor and software design firm as it nears the end of its fixed term.

The Hertfordshire-based chipmaker was founded in 1985 and acquired by the private equity firm in 2017 for around $690 million. Plans for the sale were first reported by Bloomberg, which said approaches have already been made about acquiring the British company.

Imagination primarily develops mobile GPUs, neural network accelerators for AI processing, and networking routers which it licenses to companies, including Apple. The sale of the company coincides with the end of a five-year $330m deal with Apple that saw the US tech giant receive access to a wide array of Imagination’s IP.

Canyon Bridge is funded by the Chinese government-backed investment group China Reform, and Imagination has had a tumultuous life since the acquisition. In 2020, the UK government stepped in to stop a board takeover by China Reform after then-CEO Ron Black raised concerns that should the board appointments go ahead, it could lead to the company coming under the control of the Chinese government.

Black was let go as a result of this disclosure but a 2024 employment tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed.

After leaving Imagination, Black founded a consortium that had hoped to acquire Newport Wafer Fab after the UK government blocked its sale to China-linked Nexperia. Black’s consortium was ultimately unsuccessful, with US semiconductor company Vishay Intertechnology eventually buying the company in late 2023.

However, despite the government intervention, Canyon Bridge has still been accused by the UK-China Transparency (UKTC) organization of engaging in “asset stripping.”

According to a report published by UKTC in December 2024, it is alleged that Canyon Bridge has allowed the transfer of Imagination's GPU IP technologies to sanctioned Chinese companies such as Biren and Moore Threads; the former of which is part owned by the Russian government and the latter having links to China’s military.

Imagination has previously denied any claims of wrongdoing. DCD has reached out to Imagination for comment.