The world’s largest smartphone chipset vendor will use Intel Foundry Services to make several new chips.
Today Intel announced a significant new customer for its foundry business: MediaTek, the fabless Taiwanese semiconductor company that in 2020 surpassed Qualcomm as the world’s biggest smartphone chipset vendor. MediaTek will partner with Intel Foundry Services (IFS) to manufacture “multiple chips for a range of smart edge devices,” according to an Intel press release issued early this morning.
For MediaTek, the IFS partnership is part of a multi-sourcing strategy that will bolster its production capacity in the United States and Europe, where IFS is focused. The deal expands on an existing 5G data card business partnership between Intel and MediaTek.
“With its commitment to major capacity expansions, IFS provides value to MediaTek as we seek to create a more diversified supply chain,” said NS Tsai, corporate senior vice president of Platform Technology & Manufacturing Operations at MediaTek, in the Intel press release.
Intel established IFS in March 2021 and has been pouring capital into the business ever since. Last September, the company broke ground on two new fabs at its Chandler, Ariz. campus that will cost approximately $20 billion by the time they’re operational in 2024. Earlier this year, Intel spent another $5.4 billion acquiring Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor and also launched a $1 billion chip foundry innovation fund.
The main advantages of its foundry business, according to Intel, are leading-edge process technologies optimized for high performance, low power, and always-on connectivity—all crucial for smart edge devices.
“As one of the world’s leading fabless chip designers powering more than 2 billion devices a year, MediaTek is a terrific partner for IFS as we enter our next phase of growth,” said IFS President Randhir Thakur in the release. “We have the right combination of advanced process technology and geographically diverse capacity to help MediaTek deliver the next billion connected devices across a range of applications.”
