Apple has purchased the Israeli start-up Q.AI for nearly $2 billion in a bid to enhance its artificial intelligence devices.
This acquisition involves a little-known Israeli company, Q.AI, whose technology can interpret facial expressions to grasp “silent speech,” marking one of the largest acquisitions for the iPhone manufacturer.
The purpose of the acquisition is to help Apple close the gap with competitors like Meta, Google, and OpenAI in the escalating competition to develop innovative wearable devices that interact with AI.
Sources familiar with the agreement indicate that the deal values Q.AI, which is only four years old, at around $2 billion.
In a post on their blog, GV—previously known as Google Ventures—stated that this transaction represents Apple’s “second-largest acquisition in its history.”
Patents submitted by Q.AI indicate that its technology could be utilized in headphones or eyewear, which would interpret “subtle movements of facial skin” to facilitate silent communication.
This kind of innovation could enable Apple users equipped with headphones and smart glasses to engage in discreet, non-verbal conversations with an AI assistant.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware technologies, remarked that Q.AI is “an impressive company that is leading the way in innovative applications of imaging and machine learning.”
Companies in Silicon Valley are also hurrying to create competing AI-driven “wearable” gadgets.
Meta has successfully launched its Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses that allow users to interact with its AI, while Google and Snap are set to introduce their smart glasses later this year.
OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s startup IO, formerly part of Apple, last year, and it is reportedly working on a small device for engaging with ChatGPT.
Investors are concerned that Apple may fall behind in the AI competition after postponing the launch of an upgraded Siri voice assistant, which is generally seen as trailing behind Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Recently, Apple forged a partnership with Google to utilize the search company’s Gemini systems to support its AI offerings, named Apple Intelligence.
Apple typically avoids making significant acquisitions, preferring instead to discreetly employ talent or obtain intellectual property from smaller startups that often go unnoticed.
Its largest transaction to date was the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014, which enabled the tech behemoth to overtake Spotify as it entered the music streaming market with Apple Music.
As Samsung has brought more of its chip design in-house over the years, several of its biggest acquisitions have been in the semiconductor industry. These includes the $600 million purchase of Dialog Semiconductor in 2018, the $500 million purchase of the Israeli flash memory company Anobit in 2011, and the $1 billion purchase of Intel’s smartphone modem division in 2019.
Following the release of the Vision Pro headset and Apple Intelligence, its suite of AI features, other more recent agreements have demonstrated the iPhone manufacturer’s emphasis on computer vision and artificial intelligence. These include the purchases of the Israeli 3D avatar startup TrueMeeting and the generative AI startup Pointable last year.
In 2022, Aviad Maizels, Yonatan Wexler, and Avi Barliya formed Q.AI in Tel Aviv. Wexler hinted in a social media post shortly after the product’s introduction, “I can’t tell you anything yet about our product — but I bet it will leave you speechless.” Since then, it has operated mostly in secrecy.
