Ampex is an American company in the field of electrical engineering and radio electronics, founded by Alexander Poniatoff in 1944. The name AMPEX is composed of his initials and the word "excellence" in English: Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.

The company's first significant achievement was a reel-to-reel tape recorder created at the request of Bing Crosby based on the German Magnetophon device. This allowed Ampex to quickly take a leading position in the field of magnetic sound recording, and its analog formats for audio and video recording remained popular until the late 1990s. In the 1950s, the company began developing a video recording device that became a studio standard for many years. Later, Ampex created the technology for slant-track video recording, leading to the emergence of home video players. The company also developed multitrack recording, slow-motion playback technology, instant video replays, and other innovations.

By the late 1990s, the magnetic recording technologies that formed the core of the company's business began to rapidly become obsolete, and Ampex shifted to creating products for digital data storage. However, it was unable to secure a significant position in this market, and by the mid-2000s, its business began to decline. In October 2014, the only operating division, Ampex Data Systems Corporation, was acquired by Delta Information Systems. In the same month, Ampex Corporation ceased all operations.