MediaTek Inc (聯發科) shares rose yesterday after tech news site The Information reported that Taiwan’s largest chip designer is developing a next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip in collaboration with Alphabet Inc’s Google.
The reported partnership with Google comes after MediaTek in January said it had worked with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for AI supercomputers.
Shares rose as much as 5 percent early yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange before paring gains to 3.51 percent. That compares with the broader market’s 0.69 percent increase yesterday.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The Information on Monday reported that Google is preparing to partner with MediaTek on the next version of its in-house Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) AI chip.
The US tech giant released the sixth-generation TPU at the end of last year and is aiming for the seventh generation next year, the report said, citing people involved in the project.
Google designs its own AI server chips, which it uses for internal research and development, and also rents out to its cloud service customers, while reducing its reliance on Nvidia, the report said.
The company chose MediaTek over Broadcom Inc, which Google has worked with exclusively on AI chips in the past few years, because MediaTek maintains a strong relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, the report added.
In addition, MediaTek charges Google less per chip than Broadcom, it said.
However, Google has not completely severed ties with Broadcom, it added, citing anonymous sources.
Booming demand for AI has fueled growth for global IC designers, with Nvidia topping the sector with an astonishing 125 percent growth in revenue last year to US$124.38 billion, widening its lead over competitors, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report on Monday.
MediaTek was the fifth-largest IC designer in the world last year after revenue rose 19 percent year-on-year to US$16.52 billion, driven by strong performance across smartphones, power management ICs and smart edge solutions, the Taipei-based advisory firm said.
US-based Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices Inc were the second, third and fourth-largest IC designers last year, TrendForce said.
The world’s top 10 IC designers generated US$249.8 billion in combined revenue last year, a 49 percent annual increase, it added.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
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