DarwinAI, a Canada-based company that specializes in vision-based technology for controlling components during the manufacturing process to improve efficiency, has joined Apple's acquisition list according to Bloomberg.
According to their profiles in LinkedIn, several members of the startup's team joined Apple's machine learning teams in January, although Apple or DarwinAI have not announced this deal.
Several investors, including BDC Capital's Deep Tech Venture Fund, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Inovia Capital, had contributed more than $15 million to DarwinAI. On its website, BDC Capital reports that it has received an exit from DarwinAI, while Obvious Venture has updated its portfolio to indicate the acquisition of the startup.
DarwinAI creates AI models smaller and faster, according to Bloomberg. This could be beneficial for the generative AI features that Apple plans to include in iOS 18 this year.
Compared to competitors like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, Apple has been late in releasing features powered by generic AI. In February, Tim Cook stated that the company intended to introduce these features "later this year."
During the quarterly earnings call with analysts, Cook said, "We continue to put in a tremendous amount of time and effort and are excited to share details of our ongoing work in that space later this year."
Apple's top executive confirmed the investment in AI generation efforts last year. Apple job postings indicate that the company is considering incorporating AI in a variety of internal and external areas, such as Siri, developer tools, and customer support.
