Xiaomi to switch to Mediatek for Smartphone Chips as Qualcomm faces shortage: Report

Chinese multinational electronics company, Xiaomi, is reportedly planning on switching its source of mobile processors for its smartphones from Qualcomm to Meditek. Amid a global shortage of semiconductors, Qualcomm suffers from constraints over 5G chip supply which has led to the switch by Xiaomi.

Based on a report by UDN, Qualcomm is facing issues as its foundry capacity is tightly packed at the moment. Similarly, even AMD, Nvidia, Samsung are facing shortages. Samsung faces another issue in production as its Austin plant has yet to resume production due to the cold wave in America. In other words, the supply chain for 5G mobile processors is facing huge disruptions, with delivery times stretching to as long as 30 weeks for Xiaomi, Oppo, and other companies as well.

Thus, the Chinese tech giant aims at reducing the proportion of Qualcomm chips from 80 percent to 55 percent and is turning towards MediaTek for help. The lowering of Qualcomm chips order will be transferred over to MediaTek. Due to the influx of new orders, the Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company’s revenue is expected to rise to a new high of 100 billion Yuan (roughly 15.3 billion US Dollars), which would, in turn, lead to its share price also rising.

As for the chip shortage, Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO, has previously mentioned to the media that the current high demand for chips for technology products has put tremendous pressure on the global semiconductor industry.

The shortage is one of the reasons why MediaTek is launching new flagship chips one after another and trying to capture the market. According to Giz China, “the Dimensity 1000 series SoCs successfully replace the Qualcomm chips. And it is worth noting that the MediaTek Dimensity 2000 processor may be shipped early in the Q2 quarter.”

For those unaware, the global semiconductor industry is suffering from a major shortage with various industries including markets like automobiles, and smartphones, among others, being affected by the supply issue.

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