NXP Semiconductors declared that it has finalized a deal to purchase Kinara, a company that manufactures discrete neural processing units (NPUs). Multi-modal generative AI models are among the many edge AI applications made possible by these devices. Subject to standard closing requirements, such as regulatory clearances, the $307 million all-cash acquisition is anticipated to close in the first half of 2025.
Secure, economical, and energy-efficient edge AI processing will be necessary for the development of intelligent systems in the future. The market for edge AI processing is expanding quickly as a result. Advanced AI at the edge enables key choices to be made locally and independently from the cloud, leading to faster answers, greater data privacy, and reduced costs.
In order to meet the quickly expanding AI requirements of the industrial and automotive sectors, Kinara’s cutting-edge NPUs and extensive software enablement provide energy-efficient AI performance across a variety of neural networks, including conventional AI and generative AI.
By adding discrete NPUs and reliable AI software to NXP’s portfolio of processors, connectivity, security, and sophisticated analog solutions, the acquisition will improve and fortify NXP’s capacity to offer comprehensive and scalable AI platforms, ranging from TinyML to generative AI.
Because Kinara and NXP are already partners, pairing Kinara’s NPUs with NXP’s market-leading industrial and Internet of Things processors is simple, stated its official release. The businesses will work together to develop more tightly integrated solutions that will provide scalable AI platforms for a range of industrial and automotive AI inference requirements.
Speaking about the recent acquisition, Rafael Sotomayor, executive vice president and general manager, Secure Connected Edge, NXP Semiconductors, said, “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. 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.”
Advancing Edge AI Innovation with Kinara Discrete NPUs
The Ara-1 and Ara-2, two of Kinara’s discrete NPUs, are among the best in the business in terms of performance and power efficiency. As a result, they are the go-to option for new AI applications in speech, gesture, vision, and a host of other multi-modal implementations driven by generative AI.
Embedded World 2025
The combined innovations of NXP and Kinara will be on display at Embedded World 2025 in Nuremberg.
