TAIPEI, (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s leading chip designers are poised for stronger growth as AI custom-chip projects move toward mass production, CTEE reported Tuesday. Alchip Technologies Ltd., has already benefited from the ramp-up of its 3-nanometer AI accelerator chips, posting record monthly revenue in July. MediaTek Inc., will begin volume shipments of its first custom AI chip in the fourth quarter.
Institutional investors said Taiwan’s application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) sector is moving from chip design projects to mass production and revenue generation. ASICs are chips designed for specific computing applications rather than general-purpose use, according to Business Next.
Alchip’s consolidated revenue reached NT$7.43 billion (USD 230.4 million) in July, up 181.78 percent from the same period a year earlier. The monthly figure was nearly as high as Alchip’s NT$7.64 billion revenue for the entire second quarter, reflecting the rapid ramp-up of its 3-nm AI ASIC shipments.
The products entered mass production toward the end of the second quarter. Shipments are expected to increase through the third quarter as capacity for wafers, advanced packaging, and high-end substrates expands.
Alchip is also seeing its automotive advanced driver assistance system chips enter mass production. Analysts expect automotive products to become the company’s second-largest revenue source starting this year, according to CTEE.
MediaTek reported consolidated revenue of NT$48.48 billion in July, up 12.16 percent year-on-year. While Alchip is already in volume production, MediaTek is still in the early stages of expanding its custom-chip business.
MediaTek’s first major cloud project is reportedly Google’s eighth-generation Tensor Processing Unit, while a next-generation 2-nanometer project is also under development. The initiatives are being closely watched as potential growth drivers for MediaTek beyond its smartphone business.
Analysts said custom-chip projects typically have long development cycles, with revenue recognition depending on the timing of design completion, mass production, and customer deployment. MediaTek’s ASIC business is expected to make an increasing contribution to revenue from the fourth quarter through 2027.
The trend is part of a broader push by major cloud service providers to develop their own AI chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia. These companies have turned to design service providers to help create ASICs.
In Taiwan, Alchip and Global Unichip Corp. are among the companies specialising in ASIC development. MediaTek expects the global ASIC market to reach NT$1.45 trillion by 2028.
- Charlotte Lee Taiwan News, Staff Writer