Apple acquired a US-based AI technology start-up in what appears to be its latest bid to boost device performance and privacy, Bloomberg reported.

The company reportedly agreed a $200 million purchase price for Xnor.ai, which specialises in building tools enabling AI algorithms to be run on devices rather than the cloud or remote data centres. Through this process, user information is safer and device processing is improved, Bloomberg stated.

Xnor.ai was founded in 2016 and raised around $14.6 million in funding to date, building a staff of around 70, US news outlet GeekWire reported.

The deal follows previous acquisitions by Apple to bolster its AI capabilities. In December 2019 it agreed a deal to acquire UK-based AI image processing company Spectral Edge, a move expected to relate to improving picture quality.

In 2016, it acquired another AI start-up, Turi, for a reported $200 million.

Apple declined to confirm the latest deal: in a statement to Bloomberg the company said only that it buys smaller companies “from time-to-time”.