Microsoft's M12 invests in AI semiconductor company Syntiant

Microsoft’s VC arm M12 today announced its latest investment in Syntiant. Syntiant is an AI semiconductor company that is creating a new class of ultra-low-power, high-performance, deep neural network processors for edge computing. Apart from M12, Syntiant’s Series B funding came from the Amazon Alexa Fund, Applied Ventures, Intel Capital, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. Syntiant also named Samir Kumar, managing director of M12 as its board member.

“We are both humbled and excited to be supported by several of the world’s greatest technology companies,” said Kurt Busch, CEO of Syntiant. “With participation from existing and new investors, and deeper guidance from our expanded board with the additions of Samir Kumar and Bret Johnsen, we will be able to commercialize Syntiant’s neural network technology for battery-powered devices to truly enable pervasive artificial intelligence.”

“Syntiant’s architecture is well suited for the computational patterns and inherent parallelism of deep neural networks,” said Kumar. “We see great potential in its ability to enable breakthroughs in power performance for AI processing in IoT [Internet of things].”