A Neural Processing Unit, often shortened to NPU, is a computer chip made to handle artificial intelligence tasks efficiently. A normal CPU can run many kinds of instructions, and a GPU is strong at parallel graphics and math work. An NPU is more specialized. It is designed for the repeated calculations used by neural networks.
You can think of an NPU as a helper chip for local AI features. It may help a phone improve photos, remove background noise during calls, recognize speech, summarize text, or run parts of a large language model. Because it is built for these tasks, it can often do them while using less power than a general-purpose processor.
NPUs are becoming common in phones, tablets, and newer laptops. They are useful because not every AI task needs to be sent to a cloud server. Running AI on the device can reduce delay, save bandwidth, and improve privacy because some information never leaves the user's machine.
An NPU does not replace the CPU or GPU. Instead, it shares the work. The CPU manages the system, the GPU may handle graphics or heavy parallel workloads, and the NPU accelerates AI-specific operations. Software decides which chip should handle which part of the job.
The main reason NPUs matter is that AI features are moving into everyday devices. A device with a capable NPU can perform smart tasks more smoothly, especially when the work needs to happen quickly and without draining the battery.