Mobile phone chip supplier MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said that it has allocated 2,000 to 3,000 engineers over the past one-and-half years to focus on the development of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies in pursuit of new revenue growth due to stagnating smartphone sales worldwide.
The number of affected employees constitutes about 19 percent of the chip designer’s total gobal workforce of 16,000 people.
MediaTek also earmarked a significant portion of its US$1.8 billion research and development budget last year for new technologies, it said.
Over the past four years, the firm has invested NT$22 billion (US$713.6 million) in research and development, exploring cutting-edge technologies and products, it said.
MediaTek said that it expects to commercialize those technologies and turn more of those investments into revenue next year.
Revenue from 5G, AI, application-specific ICs (ASIC) and chips for automobiles are to contribute about 10 percent of revenue next year, more than doubling from this year, MediaTek said.
“Combining 5G with AI will be an important paradigm shift. As few companies are capable of making such [5G] chips, MediaTek will certainly be among the leading group [in 5G technology],” chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a media briefing.
There would be replacement demand for 5G smartphones next year, although overall mobile phone sales growth is losing steam, MediaTek said.
The Hsinchu-based company said that it expects about 50 million mobile phones to be upgraded to 5G-enabled models.
MediaTek plans to ship its first 5G modem, dubbed Helio M70, by the end of this year and roll out a cost-effective 5G system on a chip next year, it said.
MediaTek said in a separate statement that is has also made progress in its ASIC business, as it has completed the first 5G interoperability tests between its Helio M70 5G modem and Nokia Corp’s AirScale base station.
MediaTek has been working with Nokia over the past two years to accelerate the rollout of 5G networks and the first wave of 5G devices, the statement said.
MediaTek is to ship its new AI-enabled mobile phone chip, code-named Helio P90, this quarter at the earliest, allowing mobile users to take better-quality pictures, even at night or when moving, the firm said.
With strong growth momentum coming from new technologies, Tsai said that the company is expected to grow its revenue by a double-digit percentage every year in the medium to long term.
This year, the company expects revenue to be flat, or to rise slightly, due to sagging smartphone demand.
MediaTek said that it did not expect any major effects from a wafer manufacturing incident at a fab operated by its supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
The board of directors would discuss the feasibility of paying cash dividends on a quarterly basis, MediaTek said, adding that it would maintain its payout ratio at between 60 percent and 70 percent.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS