NXP Acquires Kinara in $300 Million Deal
NXP Semiconductors has entered into an agreement to acquire Kinara, Inc., an industry leader in high performance, energy-efficient and programmable discrete neural processing units (NPUs). The acquisition will be an all-cash transaction valued at $307 million and is expected to close in the first half of 2025
Kinara’s NPUs and comprehensive software enablement deliver energy-efficient AI performance across a range of neural networks, including conventional AI, as well as generative AI, to address the rapidly growing AI needs of industrial and automotive markets.
According to NXP officials, the acquisition will enhance and strengthen NXP’s ability to provide complete and scalable AI platforms, from TinyML to generative AI, by bringing discrete NPUs and robust AI software to NXP’s portfolio of processors, connectivity, security, and advanced analog solutions.
“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,” said Rafael Sotomayor, executive vice president and general manager, Secure Connected Edge, NXP Semiconductors.
Kinara’s NPUs, including the Ara-1 and Ara-2, are among the industry leaders in performance and power efficiency and are a preferred solution for emerging AI applications in vision, voice, gesture, and a variety of other generative AI-powered multi-modal implementations. Additionally, the company provides a complete software development kit enabling customers to optimize AI model performance and streamline the deployment.
Kinara’s AI software portfolio includes extensive model libraries and model optimization tools, which will be integrated into NXP’s eIQ AI/ML software development environment to enable customers to quickly and easily create end-to-end AI systems. As existing partners, Kinara and NXP make it easy to pair Kinara’s NPUs with NXP’s industry-leading portfolio of industrial and IoT processors. Together, the companies plan to create tighter integration of solutions to deliver scalable AI platforms for a variety of industrial and automotive AI inference needs.
“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,” said Sotomayor.
State of Illinois Announces New RFID Vendor
The State of Illinois executed a contract for a new seed-to-sale system for state’s medical and adult use cannabis programs, utilizing RFID tags, computerized tags that allow for easier, more accurate entry of information into the system by operators.
Metrc‘s highly-configurable, secure and scalable RFID system, will modernize Illinois’ evolving cannabis industry and regulatory systems. Through state funding, cannabis business establishments will not be charged for Metrc’s RFID tags, subject to certain restrictions. These new identification tags will reduce manual auditing and increase time for health-related inspections.
Michael Johnson, CEO of Metrc, noted the Illinois cannabis industry is among the most prominent and influential in the nation.
“Our team at Metrc is looking forward to working side-by-side with state regulators to enhance their program by boosting supply chain transparency, fueling improvements in public safety and confidence and supporting the State’s social equity initiatives, and ensuring that all licensees, including those from historically underserved communities, have the tools and resources they need to thrive,” said Johnson.
Currently, Metrc provides seed-to-sale tracking in 27 jurisdictions and has training and implementation support services for the transition.
Cisco Honored at IoT Breakthrough Awards Program
Cisco has been selected as winner of the “Industrial IoT Company of the Year” award the 9th annual IoT Breakthrough Awards program.
The award highlights Cisco’s commitment to building and advancing breakthrough IoT solutions that transform industrial operations. Through its cutting-edge Industrial IoT (IIoT) technologies, the company empowers organizations to optimize productivity, enhance safety and achieve sustainability goals by connecting and automating critical infrastructure.
Cisco is spearheading IIoT growth by leveraging its industrial networking portfolio that provides the core infrastructure for IIoT deployments. Designed specifically for industrial needs, Cisco’s switches, routers, and wireless equipment share a common foundation with their enterprise counterparts, ensuring robust performance across all industries and applications.
“Cybersecurity urgency and AI are driving operational networking modernization globally across all industries,” said Keith Higgins, director of product marketing, Cisco. “Cisco offers market leading, industry-tailored solutions to connect and protect critical infrastructure, with validated designs that improve IT/OT collaboration. This approach is aimed at delivering significant benefits in terms of reduced risk, operational efficiency, and digital resilience while accelerating implementation timelines.”
UPS Highlights RFID Program in Quarterly Report
UPS reported it achieved significant milestones in 2024 in its digital transformation and operational efficiency efforts, driven by use of RFID tagging technology and its Digital Access Program (DAP).
DAP offers businesses discounted shipping rates, seamless integration with eCommerce platforms and flexible shipping options, making it easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to access UPS’s advanced logistics solutions. SMBs accounted for 28.9 percent of UPS’s total U.S. volume in fourth quarter 2024.
The shipping company has been moving from a traditional scanning network to a more advanced sensing network, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said, primarily through the deployment of RFID technology. This move, which involved equipping 60,000 U.S. package cars with RFID sensors, reduced the need for manual scans, eliminating approximately 12 million manual scans per day.
Using digital data for automatic identification and tracking of objects without physical contact or direct line-of-sight “has turned into an inventory management opportunity,” Tomé said. “With RFID tagging, we have an opportunity to pull customers in where stickiness becomes a real discussion. It will help delivery of packages and their back-office environments. It’s a win-win and we’ll continue to lean into that in a big way.”
Chief Financial Officer Brian Dykes said that as a value proposition, RFID tagging is “resonating very well. Retail is a big driver through store replenishment and it’s enabled us to win in this space. We onboarded 15 retailers that love the RFID capabilities because they have increased visibility into what’s hitting their docks. We’re able to give these retailers inbound delivery windows and it allows them that flexibility and we think we’re on the edge of something great here.”