Key takeaways
What happened
5 billion into Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek. As part of the deal, MediaTek will adopt Nvidia’s technology that will help it design custom chips for AI companies and hyperscalers that can be plugged directly into Nvidia-based data centers.
MediaTek has been slowly building its custom data center ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) operations, saying in June that it expects the business to generate $2 billion in revenue in 2026, and hopes to target more of the market in the coming years.
Given MediaTek’s expertise in developing custom chips that power smartphones, smart homes, automobiles, and wireless communications, the company will also continue to collaborate with Nvidia on DGX Spark, the company’s small developer-focused desktop AI computer. The companies have extended their collaboration with the RTX Spark, Nvidia’s push to put its AI tech into consumer AI PCs.
Why it matters
The deal comes as a growing number of AI companies and major cloud providers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic invest in building their own chips so they can be less reliant on Nvidia’s GPUs. Deals like this one with MediaTek allow Nvidia to cede ground to custom silicon while still maintaining its lead as the dominant data center scaffolding.
“Nvidia is an AI infrastructure company,” Dion Harris, Nvidia’s senior director of HPC and AI hyperscaler infrastructure solutions, said on Monday on a call with reporters. ” The partnership underscores the circular nature of Nvidia’s financing efforts over the past few years, which have often seen the chip giant investing in companies that flow back into its own ecosystem.
The deal will give MediaTek access to Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion ecosystem, including NVLink, the technology that lets any chips — even if they’re not Nvidia’s chips — communicate with each other quickly. Last week, Nvidia announced a similar partnership with Amazon Web Services, albeit without the direct investment. AWS will deploy an additional 2 million Nvidia GPUs across its infrastructure, and also integrate NVLink Fusion.
” “Basically, every cloud, every model builder is deploying our platform in some shape, form, or fashion,” Harris said. ” “This is really about opening up this ecosystem to the entire MediaTek customer base,” Harris continued.
MediaTek hasn’t publicly shared information about its customer base as it relates to custom AI chips, but it’s clear Nvidia aims to help it boost that side of the business so long as it can come along for the ride.
What to watch
MediaTek and Nvidia will also continue “developing platforms for AI-powered, software-defined vehicles in the era of physical AI,” per a press release. MediaTek’s auto platforms rely on Nvidia’s RTX graphics for intelligent vehicle cockpits and work, alongside Nvidia Drive AGX, the company’s in-car computing platform for autonomous driving workloads.
“AI is transforming every computing platform — from the world’s largest AI factories to the PC and the car,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a statement. ” When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.