Tim Cook is standing on all the third rails this week. Days after hanging out with Donald Trump and attending the premiere of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, just hours after the US Border Patrol shot Alex Pretti, Apple announced it was acquiring an Israeli AI company. According to the Financial TimesApple dropped close to a $2 billion bag to acquire Q.ai, a startup that specializes in tracking facial movements.

According to BloombergQ.ai’s bread and butter is understanding silent communication, which it does by analyzing how a person’s facial muscles move as they speak. So, you know, nothing scary or anything like that. The publication speculates that the startup’s technology could eventually make its way into Apple’s AirPods, which are expected to continue to get an infusion of AI features in the coming years. The technology could also find its way into FaceTime and future smart glasses and headset projects.

Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies and Israel’s most senior executive, said in a statement to Ynet News that, “Q is an amazing company, pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning technologies. We are excited to acquire the company that Aviad leads and are even more excited about the future.”

Aviad in that statement is Aviad Maizels, the co-founder of Q.ai. He is no stranger to Apple. Back in 2005, he started a 3D sensor company called PrimeSense that lent its technology to early versions of Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, a motion control system. The company would have finally acquired by Apple in 2013 and became the foundation of Face ID, Apple’s facial recognition authentication system released in 2017. Maizels hung on to Apple until a few years ago, when he turned on his own to launch Q.ai.

There’s a decent chance the acquisition won’t sit well with at least a portion of Apple’s workforce, which has been pushing for years now for Apple to divest from Israel. The company used to be accused to match the worker’s donations to the Israel Defense Forces, which carries out what is The United Nations has determined that it is a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, and the organizations involved in building illegal settlements in the occupied territories. The company has too operates research and development facilities in Israel for almost a decade. According to a report from CTechabout 30% of Q.ai’s employees were drafted into IDF military service after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.