Chips&Media licenses AV2 hardware decoder IP to North American Big Tech

This agreement signals that AV2 is transitioning from a research-track project to commercial silicon implementation within the Big Tech ecosystem. For platform operators like YouTube and Netflix, hardware-accelerated AV2 is essential to scaling high-resolution video while curbing CDN costs and energy consumption. As dedicated decoders move into production, the streaming industry will likely see a shift toward 8K and high-frame-rate content enabled by lower bitrate requirements. Watch for the first commercial SoC announcements utilizing this IP in late 2026 to gauge the timeline for consumer device availability.

The commercialization of AV2 follows the official release of the AV2 specification (v1.0.0) by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) on June 9, 2026. This milestone, which arrived roughly eight years after the debut of AV1, establishes the technical baseline for hardware and software developers. According to AOMedia, the finalized standard includes enhanced support for AR/VR applications, split-screen multi-program delivery, and improved handling of screen-based content. While AV1 has achieved significant scale—with Meta reporting in early 2026 that over 70% of its users consume AV1 video—AV2 aims to further reduce the bandwidth burden as 4K and 8K becomes the baseline for flagship devices.

Competitive pressure remains high as royalty-bearing standards also evolve. The Media Coding Industry Forum continues to advocate for Versatile Video Coding (VVC), which has faced adoption hurdles due to a fragmented licensing landscape. Per Digital Media World (December 2025), VVC licensing fees have been positioned lower than historical norms to encourage adoption, yet hardware support for VVC remains scarce compared to the rapid integration of royalty-free AOMedia standards. The "Beyond VVC" (H.267) era is also on the horizon, with the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) targeting a 2028 completion for AI-augmented neural video coding, as reported by GreyB in 2026.

Recent market data underscores the necessity of these efficiency gains. Streaming video is projected to account for 82% of all IP traffic by mid-decade, and the global media streaming market is expected to reach $285.4 billion by 2034, per Sima Labs (March 2026). As platforms work to manage these volumes, the industry is increasingly focused on hardware-level optimizations that can deliver 4K @ 240fps or 8K @ 60fps without overwhelming current network infrastructure. The move by Chips&Media to supply production-ready hardware RTL ensures that the next wave of flagship devices can meet these performance targets.