칩스앤미디어

Market position

Describes itself as a global comprehensive video IP specialist, citing roughly 150 customers worldwide and about 1.55 billion semiconductor chips shipped containing its IP, with more than 20 years of experience in the field. Korean press coverage frames the company around big-tech royalty visibility and NPU-related re-rating.

Offers a full line-up of video codec IP spanning legacy and next-generation formats combined with a compact, real-time NPU specialised for video and image processing and standalone frame buffer compression IP, a combination the company presents as making it a comprehensive video IP provider; a 2023 report described its video-specialised AI NPU as a world first.

Technology

Configurable hardware IP for multimedia processing: encoder, decoder and combined codec cores (WAVE6 Gen2+, WAVE6, WAVE5, JPEG/CODA/BODA and newer codecs, including a standalone MJPEG IP branded WAVE-J / WAVE-JP with APV integration), a video- and image-specialised NPU IP (CMNP) for real-time AI inference, and standalone lossless and lossy frame buffer compression IP. Format support across the codec line has included MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264/AVC, VC-1, RealVideo, AVS, AVS2, MVC, VP8, HEVC and VP9, with newer work on APV and next-generation AV2.

Go-to-market

Direct IP licensing to chip designers, supported by a global network organisation, company news and events channels, and a technical product portfolio site; deals are announced individually (for example APV, AV2 and latest-generation codec IP licenses).

Semiconductor and SoC vendors and system companies building video-capable chips for mobile devices, TVs, set-top boxes, automotive and robotics/AI applications; named licensees include Freescale, VIA, Realtek, Novatek, Innofidei, Telechips and Ambarella, plus unnamed North American big-tech firms.

Geography

Headquarters and Seoul R&D center at SEMA Tower, 509 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, plus a Daegu R&D center at Daegu Technopark Dongdaegu Campus; the company maintains a global network page and is categorised as a Korean multinational, licensing to customers in North America, Taiwan and China.

History

Established in 2003, the company built a video semiconductor IP business whose cores were adopted by chip vendors including Freescale (i.MX 6 series), VIA, Realtek, Novatek, Innofidei and Telechips. It listed on the KOSDAQ market on 5 August 2015 at an offer price of KRW 10,500 per share with Korea Investment & Securities as underwriter. In 2023 it reported completing development of a video-specialised AI NPU, and in more recent periods it has announced codec IP licensing agreements with North American big-tech customers and with Ambarella, alongside quarterly revenue disclosures.

Risks & controversies

The KOSDAQ-listed shares have been volatile, with a one-year return of about -34.3%, a 120-day decline of about -45.1% and a maximum drawdown of about -58.2% as of the market data snapshot; valuation multiples were reported at a PER of 35.0 and PBR of 2.5. Korean coverage also notes a wave of Chinese semiconductor company listings as a competitive backdrop.