Apple has made a major move into the artificial intelligence space , TechCrunch has learned. According to the report, Apple has acquired WaveOne without any public announcement. This Mountain View- based startup is in the process of creating artificial intelligence algorithms for video compression, and it seems that Apple saw potential value in this technology .
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Apple has remained silent about the acquisition, although WaveOne executive Bob Stankosh revealed the news in a LinkedIn post .
After nearly 2 years at WaveOne, last week we finalized the sale of the company to Apple. We began our journey at WaveOne, realizing that technology could potentially change the world. Apple saw this potential and saw an opportunity to add it to their technology portfolio. I want to thank my co-founders, Lubomir Bourdev and Oren Rippel, as well as Craig Lytle for helping bring the idea to market and advance it for commercial applications.
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WaveOne describes itself as “creating the next generation of digital media compression.” The company says it “leverages the latest advances in machine learning and deep learning to create custom, context-aware solutions.” One of its main innovations was something called “content-aware video compression and decompression,” which “could work with the AI accelerators built into many phones,” TechCrunch says.
Crunchbase reports reveal that the company had about ten employees and raised funding of $9 million before its acquisition by Apple.
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According to the official protocol, TechCrunch reported that the WaveOne website was taken offline in January after being acquired by Apple. Quite a few members of the company's staff have attempted to engage with Apple, serving commendably in machine learning teams.
Apple could use this cutting-edge technology in a multitude of ways, from managing iCloud and Photos to streaming video and more.
