BlackBerry's embedded software unit has integrated support for artificial-intelligence chips made by Israeli startup Hailo Technologies.

The software update connects Hailo's specialized AI processor with QNX, BlackBerry's real-time operating system that acts as the underlying digital brain for car dashboards, factory robots and medical equipment.

Shares traded 6.8% higher at 11.53 Canadian dollars ($8.31). The stock has more than doubled year-to-date, as BlackBerry moved to capitalize on a broader software turnaround and accelerating demand across its industrial and automotive software divisions.

The company said tests conducted by the companies showed that AI workloads on QNX operating system delivered up to 14 times greater performance consistency, 2.6 times tighter latency distribution and lower average latency.

As AI expands beyond software into physical machinery like medical devices, industrial automation and self-driving cars, processing requirements are increasingly done locally on embedded hardware rather than over the cloud. QNX provides the real-time operating system that keeps time-sensitive AI applications running without cloud latency.