The company behind the Raspberry Pi line of computers has attracted investment from Sony’s semiconductor unit in a deal aimed at advancing its efforts in artificial intelligence. Sony Semiconductor Solutions, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, has provided an undisclosed amount to Raspberry Pi Ltd.

The amount of funding has not been disclosed, but Eben Upton, co-founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi, claims that the firm has raised funds in the amount of the 2021 funding round, i.e. $500 million.

Upton founded Raspberry Pi in 2012. Initially, Raspberry Pi customers were mainly enthusiasts and teachers. Since then, the company has become a more active player in the corporate market, with about 70% of its sales in a typical year now coming from commercial customers who incorporate its products into production facilities or manufactured products.

The deal expands on the existing manufacturing relationship between Sony and Raspberry Pi. The partnership will allow Raspberry Pi users and developers to access the Sony Aitrios platform, enabling them to develop visual perception applications for use with AI cameras with IMX500 image sensors.

According to Upton, people have already experimented with Raspberry Pi products for machine learning applications. The partnership with Sony will allow them to do more in this area. He believes that while GPT-4 and other AI language models are truly impressive, fears about them are greatly exaggerated.

In 2022, Sony is betting on the metaverse, artificial intelligence and electric cars.

Source: CNBC