Sony invests in Raspberry Pi, selects it as AI platform

Business news | April 14, 2023

By Peter Clarke

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Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp. (SSS) has made a minority investment in Raspberry Pi Ltd. (Cambridge, England), the producer of small single-board computers.

The companies added that Raspberry Pi boards would provide a development platform for SSS’s edge AI sensing devices known as Aitrios.

Sony introduced Aitrios devices in 2022 and at Electronica in November introduced a fee-based service designed to streamline the development and implementation of sensing solutions using edge devices such as AI cameras.

“Our goal is to provide new value to a variety of industries and support them in solving issues using our innovative edge AI sensing technology built around image sensors,” said Terushi Shimizu, CEO of SSS, in a statement. “We are very pleased to be partnering with Raspberry Pi Ltd. to bring our Aitrios platform – which supports the development of unique and diverse solutions utilizing our edge AI devices – to the Raspberry Pi user and developer community, and provide a unique development experience.”

Eben Upton, founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi Ltd., said: “Sony Group is a longstanding and valued strategic partner. Our pre-existing relationship encompasses contract manufacturing, and the provision of image sensors and other semiconductor products. This transaction will allow us to expand our partnership, bringing Sony Semiconductor Solutions’ line of AI products to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, and helping our users to build exciting new machine-learning applications at the edge.”

Sony has a long history of cooperation with Raspberry Pi. Although boards were initially made in China to keep prices as low as possible, in 2012 manufacturing came to Sony UK Technology Center (Pencoed, Wales).