Apple confirmed Thursday it acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup developing machine learning for audio and "silent speech" detection. The deal is valued at roughly $1.6 to $2 billion, according to sources cited by Reuters and the Financial Times, making it Apple's second-largest acquisition after the $3 billion Beats deal in 2014.
Q.ai's technology can interpret whispered speech and extract audio from noisy environments. Patent filings describe systems that detect "facial skin micromovements" to understand what someone is saying without audible speech, potentially enabling silent commands to Siri through AirPods or Vision Pro.
For founder Aviad Maizels, this is a second payday from Cupertino. He previously sold PrimeSense to Apple in 2013, and that 3D sensor technology became the foundation for Face ID. All 100 Q.ai employees join Apple, including co-founders Yonatan Wexler and Avi Barliya. "We sped research that should have taken 20 years," Wexler wrote on LinkedIn after the announcement.
Johny Srouji, Apple's hardware chief, called Q.ai "a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning." The startup raised $24.5 million in early 2023 from Kleiner Perkins, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Spark Capital, and Aleph.
The Bottom Line: Apple paid roughly 60x what it spent on PrimeSense for Q.ai, betting that silent speech tech will differentiate its wearables from Meta's Ray-Ban glasses and Google's AI headphones.
QUICK FACTS
- Deal value: approximately $1.6-2 billion (company-reported via sources, not officially disclosed)
- Employees joining Apple: 100
- Q.ai founded: 2022
- Previous Maizels exit: PrimeSense sold to Apple in 2013 for ~$350 million
- Q.ai investors: Kleiner Perkins, GV, Spark Capital, Aleph, Matter, Exor
