Forbes headline: Intel Foundry Services Announces MediaTek As First Wafer Customer
https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2022/08/10/inte…
It has been over a year since Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced Intel’s re-entry into the foundry business with Intel Foundry Services. Late last month, Intel announced that the company gained its first official wafer fabrication customer with MediaTek. Although other companies like Amazon and Qualcomm have signed up to use packaging and processing technology, MediaTek is the first substantial wafer customer. IFS is opening several fabs in the United States and Europe in the coming years, which has many strategic benefits for semiconductor companies.
If semiconductor companies can leverage Intel’s technology while building supply chain resiliency, it’s a win for both parties. In the last two years, we learned a hard lesson on why having a diverse global supply chain matters. Let’s dig into what these announcements mean for Intel and MediaTek.
While the average consumer might not know who MediaTek is, the company is the 4th largest fabless semiconductor company in the world. MediaTek chips power many devices, including smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, automotive, and many other IoT devices. MediaTek chips power more than 2 billion devices every single year. Some other interesting stats you can access on its website is that MediaTek’s technology is in 20% of homes and is represented in 1 in 3 smartphones. So while the company doesn’t have the brand recognition of Intel, it is a significant player in the semiconductor space with diverse applications.