TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — MediaTek will begin using TSMC’s cutting-edge 2 nm chip node later this year in a push to stay in the AI game, Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday.
CEO Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said at Computex on Tuesday that the company will start producing test chips, or tape-outs, using TSMC’s 2 nm node in the second half of the year, with plans for high-volume deployment in future devices, per UDN. He added the company is committed to using all of TSMC’s upcoming leading-edge technologies, including 1.4 nm and 1.6 nm nodes.
“Two nanometer, A14, A16, whatever comes after that, MediaTek is in,” Tsai said, underlining the company’s long-term commitment to staying at the forefront of chip innovation. TSMC is expected to begin mass production of 2 nm chips later this year, with 1.4 nm chips to follow by 2028.
The move reflects intensifying global competition among tech giants to secure leadership in AI hardware by using the most advanced manufacturing processes. Apple is also expected to incorporate TSMC’s 2 nm chips into future products.
Tsai also outlined MediaTek’s expansion into the laptop market, revealing that its chips for Google’s premium ChromeBooks will use TSMC’s 3 nm process. He reaffirmed the company’s goal to develop custom AI accelerators for data centers and highlighted MediaTek's collaboration with Nvidia on Spark, a desktop AI computer due out this summer.
This expansion brings MediaTek into direct competition with Qualcomm, whose CEO Cristiano Amon said on Monday that his company is “going to be in the PC market forever.” Both companies build processors based on Arm architecture, known for its energy efficiency compared to legacy X86 chips.
Apple’s success with Arm-based processors in MacBooks has helped shift momentum toward this approach, according to Nikkei Asia. Research firm Counterpoint predicts that Arm-based laptops will grow to 46.5% of the global market by 2027, up from 26.9% in 2022.
MediaTek has been the top mobile chip vendor by shipment for 18 quarters. Tsai said the company has powered more than 20 billion devices in the past decade, marking its entry into the 2 nm era as a significant milestone.
