Raspberry Pi announced the AI HAT+ 2 an expansion board that brings generative AI capabilities to the Pi 5. The product page shows the $130 module shipping now.
The board uses Hailo's 10H neural accelerator, rated at 40 TOPS for INT4 inference. What sets it apart from the original AI HAT+ is 8GB of LPDDR4X memory soldered directly onto the board. Models load into this dedicated pool rather than eating the Pi's system RAM. Supported LLMs at launch include Llama 3.2 1B, DeepSeek-R1-Distill 1.5B, and several Qwen 1.5B variants, with larger models promised in future updates.
Early testing from Jeff Geerling found the Pi 5's CPU actually outperforms the Hailo on raw inference speed for most models. But that misses the point: the HAT offloads AI tasks so the CPU can handle other work simultaneously. For robotics, kiosks, or embedded applications where you need inference plus real-time GPIO, that tradeoff makes sense. Power draw stays under 3W.
Software remains the weak spot. The Hailo GitHub repo provides examples, but reviewers report incomplete documentation and compatibility hiccups with Raspberry Pi OS. Raspberry Pi promises the ecosystem will mature quickly.
The Bottom Line: At $130 plus the cost of a Pi 5, this is a development platform for edge AI prototypes, not a replacement for cloud inference.
QUICK FACTS
- Price: $130
- NPU: Hailo-10H, 40 TOPS (INT4)
- Onboard RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X
- Launch models: 1B-1.5B parameter LLMs (Llama 3.2, DeepSeek-R1-Distill, Qwen variants)
- Power draw: 3W max
- Production commitment: through January 2036
