Apple has acquired Seattle-based AI start-up Xnor.ai, which specializes in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools for $200 million.
However, the acquisition deal is yet to be confirmed by Apple but it said that, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
Xnor.ai has a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to recognize objects. This software is used directly from an iPhone rather than from the cloud.
These image recognition tools can become standard features for future iPhones and webcams.
This acquisition resembles Apple’s purchase of Seattle startup Turi in 2016.
Turi’s software helps large and small organizations make better sense of the data they collect.
In 2014, Apple acquired Union Bay Networks and bought Lattice Data in 2017, which is a Silicon Valley machine language startup that had three UW computer science alums among its founders and Madrona among its financial backers.