Apple Reportedly Acquires Machine Learning Startup Inductiv

Apple recently acquired Canadian machine learning startup Inductiv, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Giving the signature Cupertino deal confirmation, Apple said it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Inductiv’s specialty is deploying AI tools that flag and fix errors in datasets. This could help Apple improve the back-end speech data and queries powering Siri—so yes, the AI voice assistant is getting its own AI helper.

Apple frequently acqui-hires engineering teams. It scooped up Siri in 2010 and at least 20 other AI startups since. Recent high-profile acquisitions include edge computing startup Xnor.AI (in January) and autonomous driving startup Drive.AI (last June).

Zoom out: The pandemic has created a buyer’s market for Big Tech. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have announced 19 acquisitions in total this year, the highest rate of deal-making since 2015.

The next big deal to watch out for? Amazon and self-driving startup Zoox are reportedly in advanced talks.