Qualcomm has announced its intention to acquire Edge Impulse, an innovator in AI and IoT technologies, to bolster its Dragonwing initiative. With a focus on miniaturized machine learning tools for IoT, Edge Impulse brings advanced capabilities to Qualcomm’s existing offerings. Qualcomm’s strategy aims to integrate hardware, software, and services across multiple sectors, marking a significant restructuring in its IoT approach.
Prior to this, Qualcomm also acquired LTE technologies from Sequans, signaling a comprehensive end-to-end chipset and software architecture roadmap. By merging their technologies under the Dragonwing brand, Qualcomm hopes to capture a larger share of the IoT market. The increasing adoption of private 5G networks and advancements in Industry 4.0 present lucrative opportunities for Qualcomm’s expanded IoT capabilities.
Edge Impulse specializes in no-code platforms, aiding in efficient data collection, preparation, model training, and deployment. Their solutions have transformed on-device edge AI, allowing for miniaturized ‘tiny ML’ applications. These advancements, including computer vision on IoT devices, align with Qualcomm’s vision of integrating AI at the edge to enhance their offerings for various applications.
In his blog post, Zach Shelby, co-founder of Edge Impulse, noted, “Recognising that the compute capabilities of MCUs had grown to the point where they were able to run domain-specific AI models directly onboard, we realised there were an endless number of use cases that would benefit from moving AI from the cloud to the edge.” This statement highlights Edge Impulse’s foundational strategy to automate and simplify AI model deployment for developers.
With over 170,000 developers, Edge Impulse aims to expand their platforms to support additional Dragonwing processors. Nakul Duggal, general manager for embedded IoT at Qualcomm, emphasized that this acquisition would “strengthen our leadership in AI and developer enablement.” The goal is to deliver comprehensive technology solutions for critical sectors such as industrial, logistics, and healthcare.