MediaTek weighs price hikes, reaffirms TSMC partnership

MediaTek addressed its future outlook at its shareholder meeting on May 29, with Chairman Ming-Kai Tsai noting that the smartphone market in 2026 has underperformed due to sharp memory price increases... Read original →

MediaTek’s potential price hike stems from unavoidable cost pressure cascading from 3nm and EUV adoption—EDA, IP licensing, and TSMC’s wafer prices have risen over 15% annually for two years. This forces OEMs to shift toward premium mid-tier devices while marginalizing smaller brands. By doubling down on TSMC’s 3nm capacity in Taiwan, China, MediaTek secures yield and lead times but heightens exposure to geopolitical supply chain shocks; alternative mature-node fabs can’t offset advanced-node bottlenecks if U.S.-led export controls tighten. Qualcomm will likely counter with Snapdragon 7+ Gen4 on Samsung’s SF3 to emphasize cost flexibility. Over the next 18 months, the mobile SoC market will pivot to a 'technology premium' era: only players who sustain gross margins amid escalating process costs will command pricing power in the AI-phone upgrade cycle.