Nvidia invests $3.5 billion in MediaTek as foreign investors raise forecasts

Nvidia has committed $3.5 billion to MediaTek, a move Taiwan's Liberty Times presents as deepening the two chipmakers' cooperation and strengthening MediaTek's position in the artificial-intelligence market.

Nvidia subscribed to nearly 90% of MediaTek's euro convertible bond issue. The proceeds will support chip-supply-chain needs, with analysts saying they could fund advance purchases of high-bandwidth memory, ABF substrates and foundry capacity for future AI ASIC products.

Two U.S. investment firms kept positive views on MediaTek. One maintained a buy rating, set a NT$5,588 target and named the company its preferred choice. The other kept a NT$6,800 target. Their reports said the Nvidia relationship could raise MediaTek's chances of securing a second or even third cloud-service-provider customer, while giving its 2028 ASIC revenue room to rise.

Alphabet's participation in the bond issue was cited as evidence that cooperation on Google's TPU chips is also becoming more established. Analysts said Nvidia's NVLink Fusion platform could help MediaTek pursue new customers by allowing it to offer customized XPU designs compatible with Nvidia GPUs, CPUs, networking equipment and rack-scale NVLink infrastructure.

The reports also pointed to a longer-term shift in MediaTek's business. As its AI operations expand, advanced large-chip products could account for more revenue and carry higher values per chip than traditional smartphone system-on-chip products, reducing the company's exposure to mobile-phone cycles.