Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based technology to monitor components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported.
While neither Apple nor DarwinAI announced the deal, several members of the startup's team joined Apple's machine learning teams in January, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
DarwinAI has raised over $15 million in funding across various rounds from investors including BDC Capital's Deep Tech Venture Fund, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Inovia Capital. BDC Capital confirms on its website that it has received an exit from DarwinAI, while Obvious Venture has updated its portfolio to reflect that the startup has been acquired.
BDC Capital and Obvious Venture had not commented on the story at the time of writing. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As Bloomberg noted in its report, apart from helping with manufacturing efficiency, DarwinAI uses technologies to make AI models smaller and faster. This could be useful for the on-device generated AI features that Apple hopes to introduce in iOS 18 this year.
Apple has lagged behind in launching AI-powered features compared to competitors like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. In February, Tim Cook said the company plans to offer such features “later this year.”
“We continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we are excited to share details of our continued work in this area later this year,” Cook said during a quarterly earnings call with analysts.
Last year, Apple's CEO confirmed investment in artificial general intelligence efforts. Job listings at Apple indicated that the company is exploring integrating AI into multiple internal and external areas including Siri, developer tools, and customer support.
