Synaptics (SYNA) 28th Annual Needham Growth Conference Virtual summary

Company evolution and strategic focus

• Nearly 40 years in semiconductors, evolving from touch sensing to edge AI solutions.

• Current growth driven by edge AI, leveraging interface, sensing, and connectivity technologies.

• Astra platform developed for native AI processing at the far edge, targeting next 2–4 years.

• Investments in data center AI expected to shift toward edge and far edge applications.

Astra platform and differentiation

• Astra 2600 series processor built from scratch for edge AI, featuring dual-core and custom NPU.

• Unique integration of Google’s Coral RISC-V NPU, exclusive in the semiconductor market.

• Low power consumption enables fanless, heat sink-free designs for industrial and healthcare uses.

• Open source approach allows flexible model deployment from cloud to edge.

• Quantization techniques optimize AI models for efficient edge and cloud operation.

Market traction and applications

• Astra 2600 series sampling now, with general availability expected end of Q1 or early Q2.

• Early traction in industrial, healthcare, and consumer applications, including real-time translation and LLMs at the edge.

• Demonstrated running Google’s Gemma 3 LLM locally on Astra at CES.

• Near-term focus on consumer and wearable markets; mid-term growth expected in industrial sectors.

• Robotics applications leverage combined touch, processing, and connectivity technologies.