Apple has been largely left out of the current AI revolution, but it appears to finally be making some moves of its own.
In a deal worth close to $2 billion, Apple confirmed Thursday it has acquired Q.ai, a Tel Aviv-based startup developing advanced machine learning systems for audio and communication. The acquisition marks Apple’s second-largest purchase ever, trailing only the $3 billion Beats by Dre deal in 2014, and signals the iPhone maker’s intent to aggressively upgrade its voice assistant and wearable capabilities.
What Q.ai Does
Q.ai specializes in what industry insiders call “silent speech” technology—using subtle facial movements and muscle activity to decode what someone is saying, even when they’re barely making a sound. Patent filings show the startup has developed systems that analyze tiny skin movements and muscle contractions, sometimes using optical or laser projection from glasses or headsets, to understand speech in near-silence or extremely noisy environments.
The technology goes beyond standard noise cancellation. It’s about fundamentally reimagining how devices pick up human communication when traditional microphones fall short—think whispering in a quiet meeting, trying to activate Siri at a crowded concert, or controlling devices without broadcasting your commands to everyone around you.
The Aviad Maizels Factor
Leading Q.ai is Aviad Maizels, a serial entrepreneur who’s now sold two companies to Apple. His previous startup, PrimeSense, developed the 3D sensing technology that Apple acquired in 2013 for $360 million. That deal eventually powered Face ID, helping Apple ditch fingerprint sensors for facial recognition on iPhones.
Maizels’ track record matters here. He’s proven he can build hardware-oriented AI technologies that Apple can actually ship at scale. The entire Q.ai team, including Maizels and co-founders Yonatan Wexler and Avi Barliya, is joining Apple’s engineering and AI groups.
Why This Matters
Apple’s Siri has fallen embarrassingly behind competitors like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and even Amazon’s Alexa in terms of conversational ability and contextual understanding. While rivals raced ahead with generative AI, Apple stuck to scripted responses and limited functionality. Apple recently signed a deal with Google to use its Gemini model to power Siri.
This acquisition suggests Apple is taking a different approach: rather than just making Siri chattier, it’s making the entire input layer more sophisticated. Q.ai’s technology could enable better Siri performance across all devices, understanding mumbled commands, whispered requests, or speech in loud environments like cars, trains, or stadiums. Next-generation AirPods could allow users to trigger Siri by mouthing words silently, or pick up whispered commands that wouldn’t register on traditional microphones. For Vision Pro, silent speech recognition could let users control Apple’s spatial computing headset or communicate with virtual avatars without speaking aloud—crucial for privacy and immersion in shared spaces. The approach appears designed to run locally rather than in the cloud, aligning perfectly with Apple’s privacy-first positioning.
The Bigger Picture
Apple’s move reflects its broader strategy of acquiring small, specialized AI startups rather than making splashy announcements. The company has quietly bought dozens of AI companies in recent years, folding their technology into products without fanfare.
But the estimated $2 billion price tag here is anything but quiet. It’s a statement that Apple recognizes it needs to move fast in multimodal AI—combining voice, gesture, and visual inputs—as competitors push ahead in both consumer AI assistants and AR/VR experiences. With Meta, Google, and Amazon all investing heavily in audio AI and wearables, Apple can’t afford to let Siri remain the punchline it’s become. Whether Q.ai’s technology can actually fix that remains to be seen, but at minimum, it shows Apple is willing to write big checks to catch up.