MediaTek: To launch three 7nm chips next year, counterattack and regain lost market share

Source: The content comes from Juheng.com, thank you.

Mobile phone chip giant MediaTek held its year-end review yesterday. Co-CEO Rick Tsai led the management team to attend. For the performance in the past six months, Rick Tsai gave himself and the entire operation team a high score of 90 points, and the remaining 10 points were given by the market. He also emphasized that MediaTek's short-term improvements have been effective, and it is confident that it can gradually move forward in the medium and long term. Communication chips will also regain lost market share, and gross profit margin will slowly recover and grow.

Cai Lixing said that he officially took office on June 1 this year. In the more than half a year since he took office at MediaTek, he found that MediaTek has a unique positioning in the market. That is, there are very few companies like MediaTek in the world that can have such a wide range of technology and IP capabilities, including communications, modems, radio frequency, computer ICs, multimedia, audio, image processing, etc. Although he dare not say that it is the best in the world, it is at least one of them.

He emphasized that MediaTek has an annual output value of US$8 billion and its current market positioning is very good. It aims to be a partner of its customers and assist them in making products. MediaTek will not take advantage of its customers just because some of its products have particularly good technology. It must be a relationship between customer and partner.

Cai Lixing said that the mobile communications business has been difficult in the past two years, affecting revenue and gross profit margin, but after he took office, he and his team have worked hard to improve the structure and have set the tone to continue to maintain the layout of mobile phone chips in the future and continue to do so. Over the past six months, there have been significant improvements in the positioning and technology of mobile phone products. Going forward, they will have to counterattack and regain the market share that was lost in the past. The gross profit margin is expected to grow slowly and steadily.

In addition to the communications business, Cai Lixing said that the revenue of home entertainment related products will also grow by 20% this year, including voice assistants, IoT shared bicycle chips and ASIC power chips, and they are gradually seeing results. Because of the home entertainment chips, MediaTek will expand its tentacles to North America and contact Amazon, including mobile communications business and products, with a relatively complete layout and all-round cooperation.

Cai Lixing emphasized that in the communications business, MediaTek will continue to deepen its presence in the mainland market, and cooperate with mainland manufacturers in emerging markets to seize local growth opportunities. In addition, MediaTek will expand investment in the North American market. Currently, there are 5-6 bases and more than 600 R&D personnel in North America, and this number will continue to increase in the future.

He gave himself and the operations team 90 points because the team worked very hard and no one person could quickly stabilize the company in a short period of time. Therefore, both he and the management team worked very hard, and because MediaTek has many elites, they were able to complete this important task. He also said that MediaTek's stable operations will have a bonus effect on the country and society.

Today, he was also present together with MediaTek General Manager Chen Guanzhou, Vice President of Home Entertainment Business Unit You Renjie, Vice President in charge of automotive products Xu Jingquan, and Chief Financial Officer and spokesperson Gu Dawei.

Regarding the advanced process, Co-CEO Cai Lixing said that TSMC's 7nm process will begin mass production next year. MediaTek also has products in design and it is expected that three chips will be produced using 7nm. The products are not limited to mobile phone chips. Currently, MediaTek's main products, including P23, all use TSMC's 12nm process.

Cai Lixing said that TSMC's 7nm is a very good process and also a very important technology. MediaTek has a very good relationship with TSMC. Currently, MediaTek's main products all use the 12nm process, but it has also begun to design 7nm related chips. Currently, there are 3 chips that will use this process, and it will not only be used in mobile phone chips.

Regarding the chip progress next year, General Manager Chen Guanzhou said that it is not viewed from a competitive perspective, but from the perspective of whether customers need it. For example, modems continue to advance to Cat 12 and Cat 16, and maintain close relationships with telecom operators to understand future needs. In addition, MediaTek also strives to play the role it should play in the minds of customers and consumers to maximize the value of AI.

He also emphasized that MediaTek must not lag behind in products, technology, and market layout, and must even become a first mover rather than a follower to avoid being marginalized.

AI trends have been deployed, with a focus on terminal devices, and TV and mobile phone chips will be the first to adopt

Regarding the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) layout, Co-CEO Cai Lixing said that AI business opportunities are huge, and MediaTek will focus on edge computing (Edge AI), that is, terminal devices will introduce AI technology. It is expected that the first part to be introduced will be in the home platform, such as TV chips and mobile phone chips, and automotive use such as ADAS technology will also be introduced.

General Manager Chen Guanzhou said that AI technology will develop in two directions. One is to use AI to increase internal output and R&D efficiency, and the other is the business opportunities discussed in the market.

Chen Guanzhou believes that the field of AI is huge, and MediaTek will approach it from the perspective of Edge AI (edge ​​computing), that is, integrating CPU, GPU, VPU, DLA-related and heterogeneous computing technologies into terminal chips (such as TVs and mobile phone chips), allowing the chips to have AI technology, and then integrate cloud AI to form a hybrid AI architecture.

Chen Guanzhou said that the voice assistants currently used by customers mainly process and analyze voice technology concentrated in the cloud, but in the future, in order to improve recognition efficiency, AI technology will be needed in terminal devices such as mobile phones to speed up voice processing. It is expected that in the next 2-3 years, Edge AI technology will be a very important trend. MediaTek is the only company with mobile phone and home platform technology, and will accelerate the integration of AI in terminal chips. I believe it will do well in the next 2-3 years.

Chen Guanzhou said that the first products expected to be introduced will be on the home platform, including TV chips, using AI technology to improve the quality of TV screens, followed by mobile devices, such as increasing camera pixels and image recognition, and automotive applications such as ADAS will also be introduced. It is expected that in the next 2-3 years, AI will have a significant impact on the industry, and MediaTek will focus on the layout of terminal devices.

There are rumors that MediaTek may take this opportunity to enter Apple's supply chain. MediaTek Co-CEO Rick Tsai said that he knows nothing about this, but will strive for any good opportunity.

MediaTek held a year-end press conference in the afternoon. Cai Lixing said that the mobile business has been stabilized and the next step is to regain lost market share. In addition to continuing to deepen its presence in mainland China and emerging markets, MediaTek will also expand its investment in the North American market and strive to win international benchmark customers.

After MediaTek successfully entered Samsung's supply chain, whether it can enter Apple's supply chain in the future has become a focus of attention from all walks of life. In this regard, Cai Lixing maintained his statement made at a previous corporate briefing that he knew nothing about it.

Cai Lixing added that MediaTek will strive for good opportunities; MediaTek will firmly develop technology, build capabilities, make good products, and position itself well, and it is expected to recover steadily in the future.

Today is the 1450th issue of content shared by "Semiconductor Industry Observer" for you, welcome to follow.

Follow the WeChat public account Semiconductor Industry Observation , reply to the keyword in the background to get more content

Reply Popular Science , read more popular science articles about the semiconductor industry

Reply to DRAM , see more DRAM articles

Reply to 60 years , read "60 Years of Wind and Rain for Chinese Semiconductor Workers"

Reply Intel , see more articles related to Intel Corporation

Reply Full screen , read more articles related to full screen

Reply To make money , read "Why don't your chips make money?"

Reply to FPGA to see more articles related to FPGA

Reply Power , read more articles related to power semiconductors

Reply Exhibition , see "2017 Latest Semiconductor Exhibition and Conference Calendar"

Reply Submit your article and read "How to become a member of "Semiconductor Industry Observer""

Reply Search and you can easily find other articles that interest you!

Click to read the original text and join the Moore Elite