Taiwan’s chip giant endures conflict

Global semiconductor firm MediaTek, which engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of fabless semiconductor products, including microchips, is unfazed by geopolitical tension in Taiwan, confident that their sector is shielded from the political pressures from the latest saber-rattling in the region.

In an online forum, MediaTek deputy director of Corporate Sales and Emerging Markets, Daniel Lin, said the future for the semiconductor industry remains rosy, and they have not felt any impact from the latest regional tension.

“This political tension will always be here, unfortunately, and there’s nothing any company can do about it. But in terms of the semiconductor industry and business going ahead, in the next ten years, we will see a high demand for semiconductors due to various reasons that everything is going digital. All this demand will continue and drive this whole semiconductor business,” Lin told the Daily Tribune.

He added the industry had been hounded by challenges, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when mobilization was hampered, which resulted in the global shortage of microchips amid the booming digitization.

“Digitization has been so fast for the past two years, and the demand for the last two years complemented the demand from five years back. But we are fortunate that MediaTek has established a long-time key partner in terms of chip manufacturing, so we’ve been managing to secure these supplies for the long term, and even looked ahead in securing supplies,” he said.

“As a global company that powers over 2 billion devices yearly, our focus is on supporting the thousands of brands that rely on our technology, growing our business, and continuing to create brilliant technology for everyday life,” Lin added.

Lin reported that earnings of MediaTek for the first quarter were at $5.1 billion, a 10.9 percent growth quarter on quarter and 32.1 percent year-on-year. Its 2021 revenue was at $17.6 billion.

MediaTek is a proud partner of Filipino mobile device company Cherry Mobile, which they sealed a partnership with to produce 5G-enabled smartphones in 2020.

With a presence across Southeast Asia, MediaTek said currently, they do not have a subsidiary in the Philippines. Still, they see the country as a vital marketplace for the technologies they develop across industries, including markets for smartphones, 5G connectivity, IoT, smart televisions, and others.

MediaTek launched Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 WiFi 7 platform solutions for high-bandwidth applications in the operator, retail, enterprise and consumer electronics markets.

This pair of chips will be among the first WiFi 7 solutions to hit the market, allowing device makers to deliver cutting-edge products with the latest connectivity technology.

MediaTek has been involved in developing the WiFi 7 standard since its inception, and the company is one of the first adopters of WiFi 7 technology.

The rollout of WiFi 7 will mark the first time that WiFi can be a true wireline/Ethernet replacement for super high-bandwidth applications; WiFi 7 technology will be the backbone of home, office, and industrial networks and provide seamless connectivity for everything from multi-player AR/VR applications to cloud gaming and 4K calls to 8K streaming and beyond.

Founded in 1997 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, MediaTek offers multimedia, computer peripheral, and high-end consumer integrated circuits, including Bluetooth chips, global positioning system chips, wireless local area network chips, near field communication chips, mobile communication chips and optical storage chips.

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