MediaTek said at its third-quarter 2026 investor meeting that it sees a constructive outlook for the fourth quarter and for its medium- to long-term business, with data center and application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, operations emerging as key growth drivers. As investors focused on advanced packaging capacity and foundry dependence, Chief Executive Rick Tsai said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is MediaTek’s most important and irreplaceable partner, and that the two companies remain closely aligned on advanced process technology and packaging architecture.
TSMC described as an irreplaceable partner
Responding to analyst questions on whether MediaTek could be overly dependent on Intel EMIB or constrained by a strategy that ties advanced packaging to a foundry, Tsai said the company does not rely on a single supplier. He also repeated that TSMC is its core foundry partner and cannot be replaced.
With data center chips facing tight demand for substrates and high-end advanced packaging, MediaTek said it can coordinate resources across multiple suppliers, including wafer foundry and packaging architecture, to make sure capacity for its first-generation ASIC projects comes online on schedule and matches cloud customers’ buildout timelines.
Work with NVIDIA centers on NVLink Fusion
MediaTek also said it is working with NVIDIA on the NVLink Fusion architecture, combining high-bandwidth chip interconnect technology with custom ASIC development. The setup uses pre-validated chassis and rack-level designs, which the company said can sharply reduce the time from customer specification planning to live computing deployment.
Tsai said discussions with potential cloud customers have produced positive feedback so far. According to the company, the partnership strengthens MediaTek’s architectural position as it competes in the hyperscale data center market.
Fourth-quarter guidance and 2027 margin target
For the fourth quarter, MediaTek guided revenue to NT$205 billion. Because of the early-stage blended gross margin profile of its data center business, the company adjusted gross margin guidance to 44% to 46%. For products outside the data center segment, it said pricing has been adjusted to reflect supply chain costs.
Management said the ASIC business carries a higher operating profit profile, and estimated fourth-quarter operating margin at 19%, calling that the starting point for a structural improvement in profitability. MediaTek set a full-year 2027 operating margin target at above 20%.
