What you need to know
- MediaTek will use Intel Foundry Services to manufacture chips for a range of devices.
- Intel will create the chips using its Intel 16 node, which is designed for low-power devices.
- MediaTek is one of the largest chip designers in the world and uses TSMC for the majority of its foundry services at this time.
- The newly announced partnership with Intel will allow MediaTek to diversify its supply chain by using plants in the United States and Europe.
Intel and MediaTek announced a partnership today that will see the latter use Intel Foundry Services to manufacture a wide range of chips. One of the main aims of the agreement is to allow MediaTek to diversify its supply chain by using Intel plants based in the United States and Europe. At the moment, MediaTek uses TSMC for the majority of its foundry services.
Intel did not specify how many chips it would manufacture for MediaTek in its press release. The company told Tom's Hardware, "we can’t comment on the details of customer products. IFS customers have access to corridors of capacity across Intel’s global factory network, including existing wafer fabrication sites in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel, as well as plans for new greenfield fabs in Ohio and Germany."
Intel received a sizeable amount of funding to build a chip fab in Germany earlier this summer. The company's foundry services got off to a hot start through agreements with Amazon and Qualcomm. Now, MediaTek is aboard the Intel Foundry Service train.
“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. “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.”
“MediaTek has long adopted a multi-sourcing strategy. We have an existing 5G data card business partnership with Intel, and now extend our relationship to manufacturing smart edge devices through Intel Foundry Services," said NS Tsai, corporate senior vice president of Platform Technology & Manufacturing Operations at MediaTek. "With its commitment to major capacity expansions, IFS provides value to MediaTek as we seek to create a more diversified supply chain. We look forward to building a long-term partnership to serve the fast-growing demand for our products from customers across the globe.”
