Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based technology to track parts during manufacturing to improve efficiency. Bloomberg mentionted.
While Apple or DarwinAI have not announced this deal, several members of the startup’s team joined Apple’s machine learning teams in January, according to LinkedIn Profile.
DarwinAI had raised over $15 million in funding in 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 did not comment on the story at the time of writing. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As Bloomberg noted in its report, in addition to helping with manufacturing efficiency, DarwinAI uses techniques to build artificial intelligence models smaller and faster. This could be useful for in-device artificial intelligence features that Apple hopes to introduce in iOS 18 this year.
Apple has been slow to release gen-AI-powered features compared to competitors such as OpenAI, Google, Meta and Microsoft. In February, Tim Cook said the company plans to introduce such features “later this year.”
“We continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we’re excited to share the details of our ongoing work in this space later this year,” Cook said during a quarterly earnings call with analysts.
Last year Apple’s top executive had confirmed investment in gen-AI efforts. Apple’s job listings suggest the company is exploring artificial intelligence in many internal and external areas, including Siri, developer tools and customer support.
