Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors has acquired AI chip startup Kinara in a $307 million all-cash agreement. The company says this acquisition would enable it to “enhance and strengthen” its ability to provide scalable AI platforms by combining Kinara’s NPUs and AI software with NXP’s solutions portfolio.
Kinara develops programmable neural processing units (NPUs) for Edge AI applications, including multi-modal generative AI models. It's product portfolio includes the Ara-1 and Ara-2 NPUs, which the company claims are industry-leading when it comes to performance and power efficiency.
“The industrial market is going through a transformation, with new innovations like generative AI helping to deliver major improvements in efficiency, sustainability, safety, and predictability, and in many instances, unlock new use cases and functionality,” said Rafael Sotomayor, executive vice president and general manager, secure connected Edge at NXP.
“Adding Kinara’s AI capabilities to our broad intelligent Edge portfolio creates a scalable platform for new classes of AI-powered systems. Together, we can help our customers simplify complexity and accelerate time to market as they create transformative AI systems.”
