NVIDIA GPU Integrated into MediaTek SoC
Expected Release Next Year... 'Secret Weapon' to Chase Qualcomm and Samsung
Also Targeting ARM Laptop Market
Taiwan's MediaTek is reportedly set to welcome NVIDIA as a new partner to compete in the smartphone application processor (AP) market. This move is seen as an alternative to challenge Qualcomm and Samsung, who have led the high-end AP segment for Android. The competition in the premium system-on-chip (SoC) market is expected to intensify, with tensions also rising in the ARM-based laptop chip sector.
Taiwan's Digitimes recently cited industry sources saying that MediaTek will announce a premium mobile SoC integrating NVIDIA's graphics processor unit (GPU) early next year. The sources also revealed that the two companies will jointly develop chips not only for smartphones but also for ARM-based laptop PCs.
The combination of MediaTek and NVIDIA is widely analyzed as an alternative to secure a premium position in the existing mobile SoC market. MediaTek has mainly supplied mid- to low-end APs. Although MediaTek attracted attention by releasing a monster-performance chip called ‘Dimensity,’ its APs have been regarded as a step below those of Qualcomm and Samsung. Most premium smartphones have used chips from Qualcomm and Samsung. NVIDIA, for its part, has not achieved significant success in the mobile market. Qualcomm uses its self-developed Adreno GPU in Snapdragon chips. Samsung Electronics has collaborated with AMD to handle the graphics part of its Exynos chips. NVIDIA also has no presence in Apple's iPhone A-series chips. Ultimately, NVIDIA's influence in the premium mobile SoC segment remains limited.
The reason the MediaTek-NVIDIA partnership is drawing attention is artificial intelligence (AI). NVIDIA has risen to become the world's largest semiconductor company by market capitalization through its AI chips. Integrating NVIDIA's GPU into mobile SoCs can also enhance AI performance.
IT specialist media HotHardware assessed that if MediaTek teams up with NVIDIA, improved graphics and AI capabilities could enable it to compete with Qualcomm and Samsung. They explained that NVIDIA's brand recognition alone would help boost MediaTek's chip sales.
Currently, Qualcomm leads the Android mobile SoC market. Qualcomm was praised for developing the mobile SoC closest to Apple’s with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, launched last year. Samsung Electronics also used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in its ambitious Galaxy S23. Samsung abandoned its self-developed Exynos SoC and used only Qualcomm chips in the Galaxy S23.
Of course, Samsung has not completely given up on Exynos. Recently, Samsung announced an expansion of its partnership with AMD, its existing collaborator, in the field of next-generation high-performance and low-power graphics intellectual property (IP). Samsung plans to apply AMD’s RDNA3 GPU technology to the next-generation Exynos to boost chip performance. This decision appears to be driven by the judgment that the existing AMD ‘RDNA2’-based chips would inevitably fall behind Qualcomm in competition.
There is also an interpretation that the MediaTek-NVIDIA partnership is targeting not only smartphones but also the ARM-based laptop chip market. This reflects the market’s attention to the popularity of PCs using Apple’s self-developed M-series chips. ARM-based laptops that do not use Intel CPUs are a sector showing remarkable growth. Qualcomm has already acquired Nuvia, a semiconductor design company founded by experts who left Apple, to prepare for this market. NVIDIA, too, is at a point where it must secure new partnerships in the era of SoCs integrating CPU, memory, and graphics chips, and it has chosen MediaTek as that partner.
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