Oslo – November 03, 2026 -- Nordic Semiconductor has introduced the nRF71 Series of ultra-low-power systems-on-chip, which cuts standby power by up to 20 times compared with the current nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products. The chips combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Thread and edge AI on a single device and are now sampling with selected customers.
Axon NPU runs machine learning models 10x to 17x faster than the Cortex-M33 alone
The integrated Axon Neural Processing Unit runs inference 10x to 17x faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone. Nordic says keyword spotting, anomaly detection and image classification become practical on battery-powered devices, with no external AI processor required. Developers can also run ultra-small models built from their own data with Nordic's Neuton software on the processor alone. Over-the-air model updates run through nRF Cloud.
EVP Wi-Fi and Power Management Kjetil Holstad said the nRF71 Series "removes that barrier" of the power budget that Wi-Fi has imposed on battery-powered devices.
Two independent radios let one chip hold a Wi-Fi link while listening for Thread and Bluetooth LE
The design pairs a Wi-Fi radio with the 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio from Nordic's latest-generation nRF54 Series, each with separate RF and processing blocks. Both receive simultaneously, so a device can stay connected to the cloud over Wi-Fi while monitoring Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic, and neither protocol waits for the other.
Nordic targets battery-powered smart home hubs, Matter bridges and Thread border routers. Other targets include Matter-enabled smart locks, security panels, wearables and industrial sensors.
nRF7120 and nRF7120E launch with 4 MB non-volatile memory and 1 MB RAM
The first two parts are the nRF7120, with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, and the nRF7120E, which adds tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and the Axon NPU for hardware-accelerated edge AI. Both carry 4 MB of on-chip non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM. The chips reuse the software and tools Nordic already supplies for its Bluetooth LE products.
Nordic will show the nRF71 Series, including a Nordic-branded module, at Electronica in Hall C6, booth 159. Developers can request availability details from their local Nordic sales representative while sampling with selected customers continues.