George Soros Drops a £50 Million Bomb on Hyperoptic—Can It Really Zoom Your Wi‑Fi?
In a move that makes your grandma’s lottery ticket look like a humble savings account, billionaire George Soros has poured £50 million into London‑based Hyperoptic. He’s given the company a “substantial stake” via his investment arm Quantam, and now the duo’s ambition, co‑founders Boris Ivanovic and Dana Tobak, is to plant high‑speed broadband cables in 500,000 homes over the next five years.
The Vision
- Target: 500k homes in the next 5 years.
- Expansion: 10 more cities by year‑end.
- Goal: Push 100‑times faster speeds than the ordinary fibre‑on‑the‑floor.
Why Hyperoptic is Different (And a Little Bit Better)
During a cheeky November interview, Ivanovic boiled down the tech battle:
“BT Infinity says it’s fibre, but it’s only fibre from the exchange to the cabinet—that big green box that sits between the main switch and your house. From the cabinet to your home? It’s still copper, and that’s why you see those dreaded speed dips.
“Think of it like this: BT says “up to 30 Mbps”, but only a handful of people actually hit 30. Hyperoptic, on the other hand, says “we’ll give you exactly 100 Mbps (or even 1 Gbps). Download & upload, same thing—on the dot.”
Past Wins
Before tackling telecommunications, Ivanovic and Tobak ran Be, a UK internet service provider that was bought by O2 for £50 million in 2006. Clearly, they’re no strangers to making big moneys moves.
What’s Next?
With Soros’s backing, Hyperoptic is set to roll out cables faster than a rabbit on espresso. If all goes as planned, you’ll soon be streaming movies, gaming, and maybe even teleporting… to work in a single blink.
