Nordic Semiconductor's nRF71 Series Puts Wi-Fi, Thread and Edge AI on One Chip

Nordic Semiconductor announced the nRF71 Series of ultra-low-power systems-on-chip, which combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread and edge AI on a single chip and deliver up to 20 times lower standby power than current-generation nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products. The first parts, nRF7120 and nRF7120E, are now sampling with selected customers, PR Newswire reported on November 3, 2026.

What the nRF71 Series Puts on One Chip

Nordic Semiconductor built the nRF71 Series on the design, software and tools behind its Bluetooth LE products. The chip runs AI inference on an integrated Axon Neural Processing Unit, so devices need no external AI processor. The company said the NPU runs machine learning models 10x to 17x faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone.

Keyword spotting, anomaly detection and image classification are practical on battery-powered devices with the nRF71 Series, according to the company. Developers can also run ultra-small models built from their own data with Nordic's Neuton software, and nRF Cloud supports over-the-air model updates.

Two independent radios, a Wi-Fi radio and Nordic's 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio from the nRF54 Series, receive simultaneously. That lets a device keep its Wi-Fi connection to the cloud while listening for Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic. The nRF7120 offers dual-band Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E adds tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and the Axon NPU. Both parts carry 4 MB of on-chip non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM.

Kjetil Holstad, EVP Wi-Fi and Power Management at Nordic Semiconductor, said: "With the nRF71 Series, Nordic removes that barrier. We are bringing Wi-Fi and edge AI to the same ultra-low-power platform and tools developers already trust for Bluetooth LE, so the next generation of intelligent products can connect to any network, make decisions on the device, and still run for years on a battery."

Nordic's Earlier Edge AI Silicon

According to akta.pro company records, Nordic launched the nRF54LM20B SoC with an integrated Axon NPU in March 2026, its first edge AI silicon, delivering up to 15x faster TensorFlow Lite inference and 8x better energy efficiency. In May 2026, u-blox expanded its collaboration with Nordic, introducing the ALMA-B2 Bluetooth LE module series on the nRF54LM20 platform.

Nordic's Recent Product and Partnership Moves

Nordic demonstrated Bluetooth High Data Throughput in silicon in October 2026, a feature that increases transfer speed nearly fourfold while keeping Bluetooth LE's energy efficiency, Aktien reported. In September 2026, Warsaw-based IoT engineering firm Yalantis became an official Design Partner of Nordic Semiconductor, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Where the nRF71 Series Will Be Shown

Nordic will showcase the nRF71 Series, including a Nordic-branded module, at this year's Electronica in Hall C6, booth 159. Developers can contact their local Nordic sales representative for availability, the company said.