MediaTek Inc (聯發科) expects revenue to grow as much as 19 percent annually over the next five years, outpacing the semiconductor industry’s overall expansion, the company said yesterday.
“Growth momentum will be sturdy in the next five years,” MediaTek vice chairman and CEO Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a media briefing in Taipei. “For MediaTek, mid-to-high-teens percentage growth should be accessible.”
Growth would come from across the board, as the company has diverse product lines that include Internet of Things applications, and smart home and power management chips, he said.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
MediaTek expects revenue to skyrocket 60 percent to US$17 billion this year, greatly surpassing an estimated annual growth of 25 percent for the global chip industry.
The milestone of reaching US$20 billion in revenue is just around the corner, the company said.
The Hsinchu-based chip designer attributed this year’s strong growth to market share gains in 5G mobile phone chips.
MediaTek has invested more than NT$100 billion (US$3.59 billion) in 5G development in the past four to five years, thanks to which it seized about 40 percent of the global market share in 5G smartphone chips, it said.
Two in five 5G smartphones sold worldwide are powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity chips, the company added.
The company expects its mobile phone chips business to grow 113 percent annually this year, the quickest growth among its four major business segments, it said.
The segment would make up about 56 percent of overall revenue this year, MediaTek said.
However, the company still faces challenges, as the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the semiconductor supply chain and caused chip supply bottlenecks, it said.
MediaTek said it has been in advanced discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), and its chip packaging and testing partners over chip supply for next three to four years.
“The supply from our vendors is mostly done for next year,” Tsai said. “No matter how good the technology you develop, it will be in vain if you do not have chip supply.”
Due to a shortage of chip subcomponents, Qualcomm Inc struggled to keep up with the demand for its smartphone chips earlier this year.
Smartphones powered by MediaTek’s first flagship 5G chip, the Dimensity 9000, would hit the stores in the second quarter of next year, the company said.
The new chip only supports sub-6-gigahertz frequencies, rather than high-band millimeter-wave frequencies.
The company’s competitors have said that MediaTek’s technology is therefore inferior.
MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠洲) said that the dispute over frequencies did not stop its clients from adopting the new chip, adding that the firm has been in discussions with clients throughout the design process.
The sub-6-gigahertz spectrum remains the most popular 5G band, Chen said.
The company expects its first 5G chip supporting the millimeter-wave spectrum to hit the market next year, as it has passed the qualification for a potential customer, a telecom in the US, Chen said.
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