The director of Taiwan’s most significant smartphone chip design firm, MediaTek, told Reuters over the weekend that tensions between China and the United States are forcing some manufacturing companies to discuss shifting some of their supply chains outside of Taiwan.
Some of the “very large (equipment manufacturers) will require their chip suppliers to have multiple sources, like from Taiwan and the U.S., or Germany or Europe,” said MediaTek Inc Chief Executive Rick Tsai. “I think in those cases, we will have to find multiple sources for the same chip if the business warrants that.”
In Sonoma Valley, California’s wine region, Tsai and senior executives spoke with Reuters on Friday outside of a media and analyst event the business was having there. The business has been working hard to expand in the United States, and Tsai stated that the aim was to treble or quadruple revenues, though he did not provide a timeline.
While Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330. TW) in Taiwan produces MediaTek’s most cutting-edge smartphone chips, Tsai claimed that GlobalFoundries Inc (GFS.O), which has factories in the U.S. and Singapore, produces some of the company’s older smartphone chips.
Tsai also cited an earlier this year announced to produce its chips at Intel Corp’s (INTC.O) fabrication facilities. However, he cautioned that it wasn’t practical for the chip industry to migrate away from Taiwan, the world’s most significant hub for sophisticated chip manufacturing. He added that MediaTek will also be producing chips in TSMC’s Arizona fab once that facility is up and operating.
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