TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fabless Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek announced on Monday (July 25) a strategic partnership with Intel Foundry Services (IFS).

The deal is designed to help MediaTek build a broader more resilient supply chain by adding a new foundry with production capacity in the U.S. and Europe, according to an Intel press release. The Taiwanese company plans to have IFS manufacture several chips for various smart edge devices.

“MediaTek has long adopted a multi-sourcing strategy. We have an existing 5G data card business partnership with Intel, and now extend our relationship to manufacturing smart edge devices through Intel Foundry Services,” said N.S. Tsai (蔡能賢), corporate senior vice president of Platform Technology and Manufacturing Operations at MediaTek.

MediaTek initially plans to use the Intel 16 process node to make chips for a range of smart edge devices, an Intel spokesperson told CNA. Intel 16 is a revamped version of the American chipmaker’s 22FFL node, a mature process optimized for low-power devices, according to Tom’s Hardware.

The Taiwanese chipmaker currently provides chips for more than two billion devices per year; however, it’s unclear how many of these will eventually come from IFS.

MediaTek currently has a close partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which produces most of its chips. The company stressed that its partnership with TSMC on advanced process nodes remains unchanged, CNA reported.