Apple acquired artificial intelligence company Xnor.ai.

Xnor.ai had raised millions of dollars to build tools that help AI algorithms run on devices rather than remote data centers. In recent years, Apple has pushed to run this type of software on its devices to keep user information more private and speed up processing.

It's not clear how much Apple paid for the acquisition. GeekWire, which reported the deal earlier, claims that Apple paid about $200 million.

Doing AI work on devices is a key trend, especially for Apple, as it makes it easier to offer privacy protections. Apple, for example, does all of its automated tagging and categorization of photos on its devices. It also uses AI in Siri.

"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," the company said.