Taiwan’s leading chipmaker MediaTek is shifting its focus to the automotive and computing industries as the smartphone market faces oversupply and demand for consumer electronics has plummeted due to inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai made the announcement during an earnings call, highlighting the need to dedicate resources to these areas to drive growth over the next few years.

Increasing demand for high-performance chips in artificial intelligence

As more automakers integrate advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their vehicles, there is a growing demand for high-performance chips that can handle these complex systems. With its chip design expertise and experience working with leading automakers, MediaTek is well positioned to capitalize on this trend.

MediaTek is targeting the AI ​​computing market as well as the automotive industry. Tsai stated that the company is confident in its ability to provide its customers with productive AI capabilities such as those used by ChatGPT. As AI becomes more pervasive in various industries, including healthcare, finance, and logistics, the need for powerful chips that can handle these tasks will increase.

While the shift in focus is understandable given current market conditions, it raises questions about the future of the smartphone industry and MediaTek’s role in it. With smartphone sales slowing and supply chains disrupted by the pandemic, it’s unclear how long the industry’s recovery will take. But Tsai remains optimistic, saying that MediaTek isn’t reducing or expanding its workforce, but reallocating resources where they’re needed most.