Infineon makes strategic investment in XMOS

While today the interaction between humans and machines is mostly done by touch, the next evolutionary step of IoT will lead to the omni-presence of high-performance voice control. Infineon Technologies AG wants to further develop its capabilities to shape this market segment. Complementing other partnerships, Infineon has made a strategic minority investment in XMOS Limited, a Bristol based fabless semiconductor company that provides voice processors for IoT devices. Infineon leads the recent USD 15 million Series-E funding round. “Through this investment, Infineon will further explore the high potential of voice control and is well positioned to address future use cases like speaker authentication or contextual awareness” said Andreas Urschitz, President of the Power Management & Multimarket (PMM) Division at Infineon. The market for consumer devices with voice-controlled human machine interface (HMI) such as digital home assistants is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent in the coming years, according to IHS (IHS Markit Digital assistants and AI, May 2017). “This was the logical next step, as we have identified HMI as a strategic growth area.” Mark Lippett, CEO of XMOS, was quick to point out the synergies: “Infineon and XMOS share an exciting vision of next generation user experiences, and best in class technology in complimentary areas. Partnerships like ours will be key to the realization of universally accessible IoT solutions.”