The Brutal Truth About ASIC Services: Google TPU Delays Jeopardize MediaTek’s Gamble

[karin623]

MediaTek shocked the industry when it grabbed part of Google’s coveted TPU design contract away from Broadcom. The win turned it into one of Asia’s hottest AI concept stocks. But fast forward to today, and the story looks far less rosy. Google’s TPU timeline keeps slipping, raising the specter that MediaTek could be left with nothing more than a one-off design fee.

This is the brutal reality of the ASIC services business: cloud giants with trillion-dollar market caps can change direction overnight, leaving suppliers high and dry. A cautionary tale from Taiwan’s own Neuchips—whose ambitious 7nm AI chip once beat Nvidia’s H100 in efficiency tests, only to be abandoned when Meta shifted in-house—shows just how unforgiving this game can be.

For MediaTek, the stakes are high. Will its “custom AI accelerator” bet become the company’s golden goose—or a white elephant?

The Brutal Truth About ASIC Services: Google TPU Delays Jeopardize MediaTek’s Gamble

Liang-rong Chen

cwnewsroom.substack.com

 

[swka]

MediaTek shocked the industry when it grabbed part of Google’s coveted TPU design contract away from Broadcom. The win turned it into one of Asia’s hottest AI concept stocks. But fast forward to today, and the story looks far less rosy. Google’s TPU timeline keeps slipping, raising the specter that MediaTek could be left with nothing more than a one-off design fee.

This is the brutal reality of the ASIC services business: cloud giants with trillion-dollar market caps can change direction overnight, leaving suppliers high and dry. A cautionary tale from Taiwan’s own Neuchips—whose ambitious 7nm AI chip once beat Nvidia’s H100 in efficiency tests, only to be abandoned when Meta shifted in-house—shows just how unforgiving this game can be.

For MediaTek, the stakes are high. Will its “custom AI accelerator” bet become the company’s golden goose—or a white elephant?

The Brutal Truth About ASIC Services: Google TPU Delays Jeopardize MediaTek’s Gamble

Liang-rong Chen

cwnewsroom.substack.com

@karin623 , do you think the slipped TPU will come back to volume production eventually, or it will be a new design?

Agree with the ASIC NRE versus royalty risk; but assume MTK did a good enough job, this engagement gets them in the door, and result in higher probability for them to secure the follow up TPU generations.

 

[FIvr]

MTK is spreading too thin. It was announced they work with Nvidia to make AI SOC competitive to Apple's M series, but that is also slipping.

 

[horace]

MTK is spreading too thin. It was announced they work with Nvidia to make AI SOC competitive to Apple's M series, but that is also slipping.

From what I heard, the moment interviewees for the MediaTek openings knows they are working on the NVDA chip, they ask whether they can join NVDA instead. Many MediaTek engineers working on that chip also switch over to join NVDA once they build their connection inside NVDA.