Apple has recently acquired DarwinAI, a Canadian AI startup renowned for its vision-based technology aimed at monitoring manufacturing components to enhance efficiency, as reported by Bloomberg. Although neither Apple nor DarwinAI has officially confirmed the acquisition, the LinkedIn profiles of several DarwinAI team members indicate they joined Apple’s machine learning departments in January.
DarwinAI, which has successfully raised over $15 million through various funding rounds from investors like BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Inovia Capital, has been marked as an exit by BDC Capital on its website. Additionally, Obvious Venture has updated its portfolio to show DarwinAI’s acquisition. At the time of writing, neither BDC Capital nor Obvious Venture has provided comments on the acquisition, and Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Bloomberg’s report highlights that DarwinAI’s expertise extends beyond manufacturing efficiencies, including the development of techniques to streamline AI models, making them both smaller and faster. This advancement aligns with Apple’s ambitions to integrate generative AI features into iOS 18 later this year.
Compared to rivals like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, Apple has been slower to introduce generative AI-powered features. However, in February, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company’s intention to launch such features “later this year,” expressing excitement about the ongoing work in this area during a quarterly earnings call with analysts.
Last year, a senior Apple executive confirmed the company’s investment in generative AI technologies. Job listings from Apple suggest it is looking to incorporate AI across a wide range of applications, including Siri, developer tools, and customer support, indicating a broad commitment to integrating AI technology into its products and services.
