Strong alliance? MediaTek reportedly intends to take a stake in TSMC's subsidiary, Global Unichip, to strengthen its AI ASIC layout.

Market rumors surfaced that MediaTek is evaluating an equity stake in Global Unichip (GUC) to strengthen its AI chip layout, TSMC responded that this is not the case. Additionally, TSMC has recently adjusted its capital allocation to focus on its core business.

As cloud service providers (CSPs) accelerate their in-house chip development, the ASIC custom chip market is rising rapidly, bringing new collaboration possibilities to the semiconductor supply chain. Market rumors suggest that MediaTek (2454) is evaluating ways to deepen cooperation with TSMC's ASIC design service provider Global Unichip (3443) through "equity investment" or "strategic alliance" to strengthen its own AI chip layout and advanced process design service capabilities. In response, TSMC stated that this is not the case.

TSMC Frequently Adjusts Capital Allocation, Outsiders Interpret as Focusing on Core Business

Recently, TSMC has been making frequent moves in capital allocation. In the past, the company invested in global CPU design IP giant Arm Holdings, hoping to deepen connections with chip design ecosystem clients. However, as the capital market heats up, TSMC fully divested its Arm holdings in April this year. Subsequently, in May, it announced the sale of 8.1% of its stake in Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), reducing its shareholding from approximately 27.1% to around 19%.

Digitimes quoted industry insiders as saying that although divesting Arm and reducing its stake in VIS are different types of investments, the logic behind them is consistent: "The AI wave has completely reshaped the semiconductor industry structure. TSMC is reassessing its capital allocation and inter-group division of labor to further focus on its core foundry business."

Based on this, the market speculates that TSMC, as the largest shareholder and exclusive foundry partner of Global Unichip, "may also" moderately adjust its stake in the company.

Global Unichip Plays a Key Role, Turnkey Service Demand Rises with ASIC

For MediaTek, deepening cooperation with Global Unichip holds significant industrial strategic importance. Global Unichip is one of the few global players capable of providing advanced process turnkey design services. It has long collaborated with TSMC on advanced process validation, high-speed transmission IP, and advanced packaging design services such as CoWoS. Global Unichip recently noted that as AI computing shifts from training to inference, ASICs offer advantages in energy efficiency and cost, with shipment growth potentially surpassing GPUs.

Global Unichip also emphasized that future ASIC design services will no longer be limited to chip design and wafer capacity provision but will need to further integrate heterogeneous packaging, system architecture testing, computing performance optimization, and resource integration capabilities. As CSPs accelerate their in-house chip development, market demand for mature, rapidly deployable IP, high-speed transmission interfaces, and advanced packaging integration capabilities is heating up quickly. Currently, Global Unichip's largest growth driver comes from Google's 3nm CPU project. It is also advancing ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) projects for clients in China, Europe, and North America, and actively developing silicon photonics and high-bandwidth memory (HBM)-related businesses.

However, industry insiders also caution that if MediaTek intends to take an equity stake in Global Unichip, the required investment amount would be substantial, and the actual benefits still need full evaluation. Additionally, if TSMC reduces its stake, it could affect Global Unichip's ability to secure orders from other clients in the future.

Reviewing MediaTek's ASIC and AI PC Landscape

On the other hand, MediaTek has rapidly shifted from mobile chips to AI ASIC platforms in recent years. Its future client base is expected to expand from Google to more CSPs and data center operators. Facing the increased design complexity brought by advanced processes, HBM, and CoWoS, deepening cooperation with Global Unichip is expected to strengthen MediaTek's ASIC strategic layout.

Secures Multiple Generations of Google TPU Orders

One of MediaTek's most significant strategic breakthroughs in recent years is successfully entering the Google TPU supply chain. In response to external doubts that major clients might gradually internalize chip design capabilities or even collaborate directly with TSMC, thereby reducing reliance on ASIC partners, MediaTek Chairman Cai Mingjie responded: "To a certain extent, it is a trend for CSPs to want to master more technology and work directly with foundries. However, designing an advanced AI chip from concept to mass production involves system architecture, supply chain coordination, advanced process introduction, packaging integration, and mass production quality management, among other capabilities. It is difficult to establish these independently in the short term."

Currently, MediaTek's TPU cooperation with Google spans multiple product generations, specifically:

• TPU 8t (codename Zebrafish): Expected to enter mass production in Q4 2026
• TPU v8e (codename Humufish): Expected to launch in Q4 2027
• TPU v9 (codename Triggerfish): Expected to debut in 2028

Industry insiders believe that the Google TPU development cycle is quite long. MediaTek's ability to secure multiple major project orders in a row indicates that the cooperation has evolved from a single product deployment to platform-based integration and a long-term relationship. It also reflects that MediaTek has received high recognition from Google for its large-scale SoC development and mass production capabilities.

Partners with NVIDIA to Launch RTX Spark

Beyond Google, MediaTek's cooperation with NVIDIA continues to expand, covering the Dimensity Auto C-X1 cockpit platform, data center AI infrastructure based on NVLink Fusion technology, and the GB10 SoC. Recently, the two parties jointly launched the NVIDIA RTX Spark, formally entering the high-end AI PC market.

Overall, whether or not the rumor of MediaTek taking a stake in Global Unichip eventually comes true, it reflects that under the drive of the AI wave, the semiconductor supply chain is moving toward tighter vertical integration and cross-factory collaboration models. Whether MediaTek can further expand its ASIC landscape and deepen relationships with major clients like Google and NVIDIA will be key indicators for observing its future growth momentum.

• This article is republished with permission from: Chain News
• Original title: "MediaTek Reportedly Interested in Taking Stake in TSMC's ASIC Design Firm Global Unichip to Strengthen AI ASIC Layout"
• Original author: Crumax