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The Netherlands-based semiconductor giant will utilise the start-up’s NPUs to better deliver scalable AI platforms.
NXP Semiconductors, the Dutch company that manufactures and designs chips, has agreed to acquire Kinara, which produces programmable discrete neural processing units (NPUs).
The all-cash deal valued at $307m is expected to close in the first half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearance.
Also known as AI accelerators, NPUs are specialised pieces of hardware that speed up the computations needed for AI models to work. They are designed to mimic the processing function of the human brain.
Kinara’s NPUs enable a wide range of edge AI applications, including multi-modal generative AI models. NXP will use Kinara’s hardware and software to better deliver scalable AI platforms to its customers.
Edge AI refers to AI systems that run on local devices, such as smartphones, sensors or drones, rather than on cloud servers. Edge AI can offer several advantages, such as faster processing, lower latency, reduced bandwidth, and enhanced privacy and security.
Headquarters in California, Kinara claims its NPUs are “industry leaders” in performance and power efficiency and feature programmability that ensures adaptability as AI algorithms continue to evolve.
The start-up also provides a software development kit enabling customers to optimise AI model performance and streamline the deployment.
Kinara and NXP are already existing partners, meaning it will be easy to pair Kinara’s NPUs with NXP’s portfolio of industrial and IoT processors.
NXP’s Rafael Sotomayor said that adding Kinara’s AI capabilities to the Dutch company’s portfolio creates “a scalable platform for new classes of AI-powered systems”.
“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,” he said.
“Together, we can help our customers simplify complexity and accelerate time to market as they create transformative AI systems.”
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