Raspberry Pi makes small computers not much larger than a credit card.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, has invested an undisclosed amount in Raspberry Pi Ltd, the company behind the Raspberry Pi line of tiny, single-board computers. The deal will allow users and developers to develop visual sensing applications using AI cameras equipped with Sony’s IMX500 imaging sensors.

The investment was made at the same $500 million valuation that Raspberry was worth in a 2021 funding round, according to Raspberry Pi’s co-founder and CEO, Eben Upton. (CNBC)

Raspberry Pi’s small footprint computers were originally designed to make computing more attractive to young people, but the company has since become a more active player in the enterprise, with around 70% of its sales coming from commercial customers.

Upton said the new partnership with Sony would help youngsters understand computers as they exist today and allow developers to do more in the field of machine learning applications.

Furthermore, Sony and Raspberry have an existing manufacturing relationship that has been extended with this deal. As part of the new partnership, Raspberry Pi users and developers will have access to Sony’s AITRIOS platform, which enables the development of visual sensing applications using AI cameras.

The investment comes at a time when the AI industry is in the global limelight with concerns around the power of large language models like ChatGPT from OpenAI displacing jobs.

However, Upton believes concerns that models like GPT-4 will lead to AI capable of general intelligence on par with humans are overhyped.

Related Story:  Microsoft Extends Partnership, Invests $10B In ChatGPT

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