Apple Acquires WaveOne Startup Working on AI-Powered Video Compression - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Acquires WaveOne Startup Working on AI-Powered Video Compression

Apple recently acquired WaveOne, a California-based startup that was developing AI algorithms for video compression, according to TechCrunch.

WaveOne Apple
Apple did not confirm the acquisition, but former WaveOne executive Bob Stankosh said a "sale of the company to Apple" was finalized earlier this year. In addition, the report notes that WaveOne's website was taken offline around January and that several of the company's employees now work at Apple on various machine learning teams.

WaveOne was working on "content-aware" video compression and decompression algorithms to reduce the size of video files, according to the report:

Leveraging AI-powered scene and object detection, the startup's technology could essentially "understand" a video frame — allowing it to, for example, prioritize faces at the expense of other elements within a scene to save bandwidth.

It's unclear how much Apple paid for WaveOne or when the startup's technologies might be integrated into Apple's software platforms.

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium

watchOS 27 Will Add These New Features to Your Apple Watch

Sunday May 24, 2026 11:53 am PDT by
Apple will unveil watchOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, June 8, and a handful of new features have been rumored already. The first developer beta of watchOS 27 should be available immediately following the keynote, and a public beta typically follows in July. The update should be released to all users with a compatible Apple Watch model in September. Below, we recap watchOS...
iPhone 15 General Feature Green

Apple Preparing 'Most Significant Overhaul in the iPhone's History'

Friday May 22, 2026 1:36 pm PDT by
Apple reportedly plans to unveil its first foldable iPhone in September this year — it may be named "iPhone Ultra" — and expectations are high. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the foldable iPhone will be "the most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history." "iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a whole new design," he said....
imac video apple feature

Apple Released Two New Accessories This Month

Friday May 22, 2026 12:24 pm PDT by
May has been a quiet stretch in terms of new Apple products, but the company did release two accessories on its online store this month. First up was a new Pride Edition Sport Loop for the Apple Watch. The band features a rainbow design with 11 colors of woven nylon yarns. U.S. pricing is set at $49. The band is part of Apple's 2026 Pride Collection, which also includes a new Pride...

Top Rated Comments

markfc Avatar
41 months ago
Middle out compression here we come! 😂
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vol Braakzakje Avatar
41 months ago
They should invest in AI to improve Siri instead of more compression...
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
41 months ago
Someone finally acquired Pied Piper
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bankshot Avatar
41 months ago
If this is prioritizing faces over other scene elements, it sounds like the primary application will be for FaceTime over very low bandwidth connections. Doesn't sound like anything that would be used for general compression of video files or for streaming like TV+.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Adoniram Avatar
41 months ago
Interesting… AI-based upscaling programs have come a long way (see: Topaz VEAI) and I use them with varied success.

If you could use a known compression algorithm, and train an upscaling (or decompression) algorithm based SOLELY on that known compression, I could see truly remarkable results. Platforms like YouTube would really benefit, especially if the decompression algorithm became a standardized part of various OSes or apps.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
41 months ago

Middle out compression here we come! 😂
I hope it has a high D2F ratio
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)