TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chip designer MediaTek is set to reap the benefits of the AI wave as it pursues more opportunities in the field, Nikkei Asia reported Saturday.
The company recently collaborated with Nvidia on the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip that powers the graphics card company’s Project Digits supercomputer, revealed at CES in Las Vegas last month.
Dubbed “the world’s smallest AI supercomputer” by Nvidia, Project Digits offers a petaflop of computer performance for AI applications. The computer, to be released in May, was made possible given MediaTek’s power-efficient technology and Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processors.
MediaTek has also been on the lookout for opportunities beyond its partnership with Nvidia. In a Friday earnings call, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said, “We expect our AI accelerator ASIC business to have the potential to contribute a sizable annual revenue starting in 2026.”
Tsai was referring to application-specific integrated circuits, which are a kind of custom-designed chip. Custom chips lack versatility, but their specialization makes it easier to reduce power consumption, per Nikkei Asia.
News of Chinese startup DeepSeek developing an AI model that rivals the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT but at reportedly significantly lower costs has caused some in the market to question expensive graphics processors and AI chips. However, Tsai said current trends will “democratize AI and accelerate AI penetration.”
The company has also been making inroads into 5G communications technology, a field considered US wireless company Qualcomm’s turf. According to Counterpoint Research, MediaTek dominated the system-on-a-chip (SoC) market in Q3 2024 at 35% share.
MediaTek is the world’s fifth-largest fabless semiconductor company and produces SoCs used in mobile devices. These are all-in-one chips responsible for a device’s data processing, graphics, and USB interfaces, instead of having dedicated components for each.
Chinese companies including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are among MediaTek’s main customers. Its flagship chip, the Dimensity 9400, powers phones like the Oppo Find X8 Mini and Xiaomi Civi 5 Pro.
Additionally, MediaTek said Thursday it expects up to US$4.6 billion (NT$151 billion) in Q1 revenue from AI, per Tech in Asia. Despite uncertainty from trade tensions like US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the company said it is optimistic about AI device growth.
