News

Chips&Media Signs APV codec IP Licensing Deal with North American Big Tech, Establishing the ‘Second Front’ Against Apple’s ProRes

• World’s first independent APV HW IP ‘WAVE-P’ confirmed for flagship devices of a major North American client
• Following the Samsung-Qualcomm alliance, Chips&Media and North American Big Tech solidify APV as the industry standard
• Targeting the professional video market with 8K 120fps high-quality recording and editing optimization

[July 2, 2026] – Chips&Media (CEO Steve Kim, KOSDAQ: 094360), a leading global provider of video IP technology, announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement for its next-generation professional video CODEC, WAVE-P, with a world-renowned North American Big Tech company. This deal positions Chips&Media at the epicenter of the global video standards competition.

Accelerating APV Ecosystem Expansion: From ‘Samsung-Qualcomm’ to ‘North American Big Tech-Chips&Media’

This agreement is expected to be a major turning point in the professional video CODEC market, which has long been dominated by Apple’s ‘ProRes.’ Currently, Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are leading the first wave of competition against Apple by releasing flagship smartphones equipped with the APV (Advanced Professional Video) CODEC.

Now, with Chips&Media’s independently developed WAVE-P set to be integrated into the next-generation devices of a leading North American smartphone manufacturer, a "Second APV Front" has been established. This ensures that APV will transcend individual manufacturers to become a high-quality video standard across the entire Android and edge device ecosystem, with Chips&Media emerging as a key strategic partner.

Delivering 8K 120fps: Driving Video Innovation in Future Flagship Devices

WAVE-P is expected to be deployed in the flagship devices of the North American client within the next 2 to 3 years.

• Unmatched Performance: Moving beyond 8K 30fps on a single core, it supports up to 8K 120fps via multi-core configurations, enabling seamless cinematic high-resolution recording and editing in mobile environments.
• Perceptually Lossless Quality: By supporting 12-bit high-depth video processing, it maintains near-original visual quality while offering superior storage efficiency compared to conventional formats, providing a professional-grade production environment.

Strengthening Global Leadership and Market Expansion

This licensing deal proves that Chips&Media’s technology is a cornerstone of the global standard ecosystem. Notably, the client is a long-standing partner that has utilized Chips&Media’s IP for years; this WAVE-P agreement is set to further solidify their strategic collaboration.

Steve Kim, CEO of Chips&Media, stated, “Following the first door opened by Samsung and Qualcomm against Apple’s ProRes, we take great pride in opening the second door alongside our North American Big Tech partner.” He added, “Beyond this agreement, we are in advanced discussions with leading traditional Japanese camera manufacturers. We plan to further contribute to the APV ecosystem by expanding into the professional camcorder and mirrorless camera markets through additional contracts in the near future.”

[Appendix: Key Features & Specifications of WAVE-P]

• Global Standard Compliance: World's first independent HW IP based on the IETF (APV) standard.
• Seamless Compatibility: Perfect integration with Android OS and the open-source (ASWF) ecosystem.
• Efficient Workflow: Optimized for professional editing with low-latency processing and zero quality loss during multiple re-encoding cycles.

 About Chips&Media Inc.

Chips&Media is a multimedia IP leader offering HW video codec IP, image processing NPU, lossless/lossy frame buffer compression IP and more. Since 2003, Chips&Media has exclusively focused on the HW video codec IP industry. It has powered over 3,000,000,000 units in the market, adopted by more than 150 semiconductor companies. Chips&Media's video codec IP supports all major and legacy formats from 1080p up to 8K 120fps, including HEVC/H.265, AVC/H.264, AV1, AV2, VP9, APV, VVC, JPEG and others. The recent introduction of our image processing NPU IP is transforming Chips&Media into a premium multimedia IP provider. It is a custom NPU designed to work for imaging applications at high-quality and high-resolution in edge devices. For more information, please visit our website at www.chipsnmedia.com