HP Bets On Chip Startup Hailo For Edge AI Accelerator M.2 Card

Set to launch in August, the HP AI Accelerator M.2 Card is based on the Hailo-10H chips and ‘integrates seamlessly’ with HP point-of-sale devices such as the HP Engage One Pro as well as HP workstations and commercial PCs.

HP Inc. is betting on an AI chip from Israeli startup Hailo for a new accelerator M.2 card that is meant to power AI workloads in low-power devices such as point-of-sale systems.

Hailo announced last Wednesday that its Hailo-10H AI accelerator chip will serve as the basis for the HP AI Accelerator M.2 Card, which “integrates seamlessly” with HP point-of-sale devices such as the HP Engage One Pro as well as HP workstations and commercial PCs.

Set for launch in August, the M.2 card is designed as an alternative to cloud-based processing to enable a variety of applications, including self-checkout, personalized advertisements, real-time monitoring and analytics for theft prevention as well as predictive inventory management.

Hailo said the “need for advanced, on-device intelligence has never been greater” in the face of “rising customer expectations and persistent challenges like theft and operational inefficiencies.”

“Through our collaboration with Hailo, we’re bringing unprecedented processing power to the front lines, enabling businesses to anticipate customer needs, deliver personalized experiences, and drive next-generation operational efficiency,” said Andrew Medlin, senior director and global head of HP retail and industry solutions, in a statement.

Hailo said HP customers and partners can take advantage of ISVs in its ecosystem such as UltronAI to build next-generation applications on its platform.

“The HP AI Accelerator M.2 Card empowers businesses to reduce shrinkage, tap into the growing opportunity in cashier-less shopping, and unlock powerful capabilities like real-time analytics, enhanced inventory accuracy, and personalized customer engagement,” said Orr Danon, CEO and co-founder of Hailo, in a statement.

The Tel Aviv-based startup launched its Hailo-10 accelerator chip last April, saying at the time that it enables “maximum” generative AI performance while using very little power. For example, the company said Hailo-10 can run a 7-billion-parameter Llama 2 model at up to 10 tokens per second while only using 5 watts of power. The chip can also create an image under 5 seconds in the same power envelope for the Stable Diffusion 2.1 model.

Founded in 2017, Hailo has raised a total of more than $340 million from a variety of investors and was valued at $1.2 billion with the $120 million round it raised last year. The company said it works with a wide ecosystem of partners, including Advantech, Dell Technologies and Supermicro on the hardware side as well as J-Squared Technologies for distribution.