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Amazon Buys Cutting-Edge AI Inferencing Firm Perceive for $80M
Amazon is shoring up its advanced machine learning credentials, acquiring edge inferencing specialist Perceive for $80 million in cash.
The deal, announced earlier this month by Perceive's parent company Xperi, is set to close by the end of 2024, pending regulatory approvals.
Perceive started in 2018 as an incubation project of Xperi, which owns various consumer electronics firms and immersive media platforms like TiVo, IMAX Enhanced and HD Radio. With offices in California, Idaho and Vancouver, Canada, Perceive specializes in developing machine learning inferencing solutions for edge devices.
Its flagship AI processor, the Ergo 2, can perform powerful machine learning tasks directly on device hardware, without needing to communicate with the cloud. This reduces latency, improves device efficiency and generally increases the number of use cases that application developers can build for. For instance, Ergo 2 can be used to perform speech-to-text transcription, reduce background noises in real-time audio, and detect objects in real-time videos.
Ergo 2 supports large neural networks, transformer models, multimodal inputs and multiple networks running at the same time. It's already in use in devices like intelligent security cameras, home IoT devices, AR and VR headsets, consumer PCs, video conferencing systems, and drones.
Amazon's acquisition of Ergo 2 and other Perceive technologies potentially supplements its own efforts to produce AI-capable processors in-house, particularly its Inferentia and Trainium chips.
In a statement to GeekWire, Amazon indicated that Perceive will become part of its Devices & Services unit, which encompasses its Alexa, Echo, Ring, Kindle and Fire TV products, among others. The "vast majority" of Perceive employees are expected to make the move to Amazon, the company told the publication.
In a statement, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner called Amazon a "suitable home for Perceive, its employees, and its technology."
"Since Perceive's inception, the landscape for edge inference technology has evolved, and Perceive, through the skill of its leaders and engineers, has adapted to this rapidly changing environment," he said. "We are excited that Amazon will be able to take the technology to the next level, which we believe has significant potential."