Apple just bought AI startup Q.ai for $2 billion
Apple has snapped up Israeli AI startup Q.ai for nearly $2 billion, making it one of Apple's larger recent deals.
The acquisition, confirmed by Apple on January 29, 2026, brings Q.ai's founders and about 100 employees into the Apple family.
What makes Q.ai special?
Q.ai is all about smart tech—think whispered speech recognition, better audio in noisy places, and even reading cheek and jaw movements to turn silent gestures into words or Siri commands.
This could mean some seriously cool upgrades for AirPods and Vision Pro down the line.
Meet the team (and why Apple cares)
Q.ai's CEO Aviad Maizels isn't new to Apple—he sold them PrimeSense back in 2013, which helped power Face ID on iPhones.
Now he's back with co-founders Yonatan Wexler and Avi Barliya, bringing fresh ideas at a time when Apple is facing off with Meta and Google in the AI race.
As Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji put it, "Q.AI is a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning."