New deal: MediaTek adds Intel as chip supplier along with TSMC

The shortage of components changed the position of construction firms and their ability to create processors on an ongoing basis. Qualcomm has already trusted Samsung to mass-produce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and it was MediaTek who decided to use a logistics partner to stay ahead of the chip market: Intel.

In an official announcement, Intel announced this agreement to be a component supplier for MediaTech using technological processes Intel Foundry Services (IFS), a service to a chip technology company that seeks to change the company’s red numbers with these sorts of strategic alliances.

“As one of the world’s leading developers of prefabricated chips that power more than 2 billion devices a year, MediaTek is a great partner for IFS as we enter the next phase of growth.” This was stated by IFS President Randhir Thakur.

Intel and MediaTek, in addition to TSMC

The announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the semiconductor industry, which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as the world’s largest supplier to companies such as Nvidia, AMD, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Apple and Intel itself.

This agreement will allow IFS create your own chips MediaTech in areas that complement the smartphone lineup: TVs, tablets and other electronic products. In this case, we are not talking about a “leading process” in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, but about a converted architecture based on the process 22FFLoptimized for mobile devices due to low consumption.

This new chip control dynamic MediaTech It is based on the 16nm architecture, which for some time was called “Intel 16”, which will allow it to be present in the emerging markets of IoT and other processes.

“The agreement is designed to help MediaTek create a more balanced and sustainable supply chain by bringing in a new foundry partner with significant opportunities in the US and Europe.” This is stated in a statement from Intel.

MediaTek is accelerating against Qualcomm

Right now, MediaTech it is capable of supplying processors for two billion devices a year. However, it is not known exactly what kind of workload IFS will have compared to TSMC.

N. S. Tsai, corporate senior vice president of platform technology and manufacturing operations at MediaTek, mentioned that the firm “has long pursued a strategy of working with multiple sources. We have an existing business partnership with Intel on 5G data cards and are now expanding our relationship to manufacture smart edge devices with Intel Foundry Services.”

Intel IFS and your investment

For IFS, the task is huge and attractive. Compared to the rest of the foundries, it must demonstrate solvency for third party work, in addition to making tools and achieving verification of various brands, to be a viable option. This is an opportunity for IFS to establish itself as a foundry business.

To strengthen IFS, Intel has taken several steps in recent years. First, it invested $20 billion to solidify IFS as a core service for Nvidia, Qualcomm, and the US Department of Defense. In addition, he acquired Tower Semiconductors, a large manufacturer with a large customer base, for $5.4 billion.

Among other solutions, Intel has invested a billion dollars in the RISC-V ecosystem and has taken a concrete step in its commitment to ARM and expanded x86 licenses for custom development. In addition, in July, the company hired Sook Lee, head of TSMC’s open innovation platform.