Neousys expecting strong edge AI growth

Industrial PC maker Neousys Technology Inc (宸曜科技) expects strong growth in its edge artificial intelligence (AI) business from this year, driven by rising demand across manufacturing, transportation, semiconductors, defense and healthcare.

Edge AI computers account for about 40 percent of its product mix, said Neousys, whose edge AI portfolio includes fanless industrial computers, graphics processing unit (GPU)-enabled AI systems and mission computers designed for harsh environments.

The company expects edge AI-related revenue to grow 10 to 20 percent year-on-year this year, Neousys vice president Bryan Lan (藍林忠) said in an interview with the Taipei Times on Thursday.

Neousys Technology Inc vice president Bryan Lan poses for a photograph at the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei on Thursday last week.

“This year, we’ve seen growing demand for computers with AI computing or expansion capabilities, even for applications that previously required only data collection or human-machine interaction,” he said.

High-performance AI systems are used mainly in autonomous driving and defense applications, but customers are increasingly demanding basic AI inference capabilities even in smaller industrial computers, Lan said.

In view of growing demand for edge AI, Neousys is preparing products based on Intel Corp’s next-generation Nova Lake platform, with a launch possible as early as the first quarter of next year, he said.

The platform’s integrated neural processing unit would allow smaller, task-specific AI models to run at the edge without significantly increasing system costs, he added.

The company’s edge AI products are largely deployed in factory safety control, traffic enforcement and semiconductor optical inspection, Lan said.

At the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei last week, Neousys and its partners demonstrated its latest factory safety-monitoring system based on Nvidia Corp’s Jetson platform that can detect workers who have entered hazardous areas and issue real-time alerts.

The company is seeing growing demand from the semiconductor sector, with products used in wafer fabrication equipment accounting for about 10 percent of its total revenue, Lan said.

Neoysys counts the world’s two largest foundries among its customers, he added.

“AI data center expansion is also creating new opportunities,” Lan said. “For example, our POC-700 series compact industrial computers are being used by server makers as controllers for coolant distribution units, monitoring temperature, water pressure, and flow in in-rack and in-row systems.”

The company is also expanding into smart manufacturing by tapping into autonomous mobile robot and automated guided vehicle projects, he said.

In Asia, Neousys has participated in outdoor delivery projects using automated guided vehicles and other autonomous vehicles, Lan said.

As markets such as South Korea establish regulations for autonomous delivery vehicles, demand is expected to grow, he said, adding that Neousys is involved in autonomous vehicle applications for law enforcement, suspect tracking and agriculture.

Neousys expects the defense-related business to be a key growth driver over the next two years, as products for the sector carry higher margins, Lan said.

The company supplies products to drone makers and system integrators for uncrewed ground military vehicles, he said.

The defense-related business accounts for about 20 percent of its total revenue and is expected to rise to 25 percent by the end of this year, he added.

Neousys plans to expand into healthcare next year, targeting AI medical imaging, patient monitoring and care applications amid healthcare labor shortages, Lan said.

“We plan to enter the market through image processing, AI computing and rugged edge computing technologies, as healthcare tends to have longer product cycles and is less sensitive to economic fluctuations,” he said.

Neousys reported revenue of NT$1.14 billion (US$35.80 million) in the first half of this year, up 36 percent year-on-year.

The company expects revenue this year to grow 40 percent from NT$1.64 billion last year, and is targeting double-digit revenue growth next year, driven by edge AI, defense, smart manufacturing and demand in the US market, Lan said.