Apple acquires Sonera, a magnetic neural-sensing chip startup
An EU DMA filing listed today shows Apple acquired Sonera, a startup building chip-based magnetic sensors for neural and muscle activity—another quiet wearables bet, not an event-day product claim.
An EU Digital Markets Act disclosure published today lists Apple among recent gatekeeper acquisitions of Sonera, a California startup building chip-based magnetic sensors meant to read neural and muscle activity without sticking electrodes to skin. MacRumors first flagged the filing; 9to5Mac followed with additional context from Sonera’s own 2023 materials.
Apple has not announced the deal. Under the DMA, designated gatekeepers must report certain acquisitions, which is how quiet talent-and-IP buys often surface months later.
What Sonera said it builds
In a 2023 press release, Sonera described a sensing approach that “non-invasively measures magnetic fields generated by the body,” contrasting that with conventional electrical sensing that usually needs skin contact. The company argued the method could make brain activity “as easy to measure as heart rate, temperature, and other physiological signals,” and pitched a biomagnetic chip for use cases such as prosthetics control, neuromuscular monitoring, biomarker discovery, and sports performance tracking.
Those claims are Sonera’s marketing language from 2023. The EU filing confirms Apple acquired the company; it does not say how far the tech has progressed inside Apple, which products might use it, or when anything might ship.
Why it matters for Apple Watch readers
Apple Watch already leans hard on optical and electrical health sensing. A magnetic, contact-light neural/muscle sensor would be a different modality—if Apple can productize it. Treat that as a long-horizon R&D signal, not a September 9 event preview. Separately, code and reporting already point to nearer-term Watch software and health work such as a Readiness-style recovery experience; see our earlier piece: https://9co.dllm.app/apple-rumors/en/news/apple-watch-series-12-ultra-4-readiness-code-signals
What we know vs. what we don’t
- Confirmed via reporting on the EU disclosure: Apple acquired Sonera.
- Not confirmed: price, headcount, product roadmap, or any link to tomorrow’s “Surprise and shine” event.
- Sonera’s public site is reported offline after the deal, consistent with Apple’s usual acqui-hire pattern.
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