A Taipei Times related-story card dated October 31, 2026, reported that MediaTek had secured a second customer for its custom AI accelerators and that a second-generation chip for an existing customer was on track for volume production in early 2028. The card described the second customer as not from China. It did not name that customer.
What the roadmap reports say
The second-customer report is separate from an earlier account of MediaTek’s first data-center ASIC customer. All About Circuits reported that MediaTek had won a leading U.S. hyperscaler and was targeting Q4 2026 production for its first chip. That quarter is also the reported target for the first ASIC; the separate early-2028 target concerns a second-generation chip for an existing customer.
Two ways to design a custom accelerator
An ASIC, or application-specific integrated circuit, is designed for a particular use. MediaTek’s reported data-center offering includes an XPU, or custom accelerator, built on NVIDIA’s NVLink Fusion platform, as well as a full-custom design service.
| Design route | Platform basis | MediaTek’s design role |
| XPU on NVLink Fusion | NVIDIA supplies prequalified chiplets, NVLink-C2C links, and NVHBM blocks. | Specifies the customer’s compute die and handles RTL design, GDS, and packaging. |
| Full-custom ASIC | MediaTek’s ASIC design service, beginning with architecture. | Takes the XPU design through tape-out and bring-up. |
RTL is the register-transfer-level description of a chip’s logic; GDS is the layout data used in chip manufacturing. MediaTek’s ASIC page also lists more than 70 product tape-outs across process nodes from 7nm to 2nm, alongside its broader interconnect and packaging capabilities.
MediaTek executives describe the NVIDIA collaboration as connecting NVIDIA’s AI XPU or GPU over NVLink to a customer’s ASIC, with MediaTek helping implement the system at rack level.
The revenue outlook changed over time
On February 4, 2026, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai forecast more than $1 billion in data-center ASIC revenue for 2026 and multiple billions in 2027. He also said a follow-on project in the company’s pipeline was expected to begin generating revenue in 2028. MediaTek’s earnings-call transcript records the February outlook.
A later All About Circuits report put MediaTek’s 2026 AI data-center ASIC revenue forecast above $2 billion. That later figure is also a forecast, not reported revenue. The separate early-2028 volume-production target concerns a second-generation chip for an existing customer.
