MediaTek Plans To Expand Its India Presence After smartphones, the new growth engine for MediaTek's India market is the automotive sector. To cater to the new segment, the company is increasing its engineering presence and R&D development in India, says Anku Jain, MD, MediaTek India.

Recently, Taiwanese fabless chipmaker MediaTek launched Made in India Android-powered Smart Digital Cluster and Smart Module with 4G connectivity for electric two-wheeler (2W) vehicles in partnership with Jio Things, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Platforms. In the auto space, MediaTek is bringing in a series of innovations, "We do have several different verticals for automotive, such as, cockpit and connectivity, components and ADAS. So, we are working on all those aspects for automobiles. Today, when you sit in a car, it is almost like a computer now, powered by a semiconductor inside," said Anku Jain, MD, MediaTek India.

Coming to two-wheelers safety, Jain added, "These days as technology evolves, some of the newest two-wheelers are accompanied by a screen connected to the telematics of the scooter. It also comes with AI functions, where it can monitor the safety aspects. For instance, if the rider is not wearing a helmet, it may not start the scooter. Therefore, there are a lot of computing requirements in two-wheelers and it's an important market for the semiconductor industry. MediaTek is playing an active role in the sector."

According to Counterpoint Research, globally, Qualcomm will remain the leader in automotive connectivity, capturing about half of the market by the end of this decade, while MediaTek will gain share in the near-term with its early mover advantage in automotive 5G RedCap chipsets.

In the Q2 of 2024, MediaTek led India's smartphone chipset market with a 54 per cent share. Qualcomm led the premium segment with a 33 per cent share. The INR 20,000-INR 30,000 (~$240-$360) and >INR 45,000 (>~$540) price bands saw the fastest growth at 25 per cent and 24 per cent YoY respectively.

"The transition from 4G to 5G is still ongoing, from a smartphone point of view, that is again an opportunity or a good target for us to have this year and next year. We have an entire range of 5G chipsets that are working out very well for us because it has helped to capture the market in all the segments. Smartphones are our highest revenue generator," he explained.

MediaTek powers more than 2 billion connected devices a year, its 5G flagship revenue was $1 illion-plus in 2023E. MediaTek has a diverse & balanced revenue portfolio- smartphone segment accounts for 54 per cent of the revenue, 39 per cent from the Smart Edge Platforms, and 7 per cent from the Power IC.

Besides, adding a competitive edge to the AI PC ecosystem. This year, MediaTek will work with NVIDIA to extend their partnership into PCs, with the first launch expected in 2025. The partnership on next-generation Arm-based AI laptop solutions will also be another driver to Arm PC market share expansion in 2025-2026 at the expense of x86 vendors. "We already have Chromebooks for notebooks, and it has been doing well. For the rest of it, we are still working and it will be premature to say anything now, however, the segment will be an opportunity for MediaTek."

Talking about the semiconductor ecosystem in India, he said that the country has rightly started its semiconductor journey with 28 nanometer (nm) and advanced nodes, considering they are relatively less complex to manufacture, compared to the cutting-edge nodes such as 6 nm and 4 nm that are used in modern flagship smartphones. "We are looking at India's chip manufacturing prowess in excitement; when the ecosystem comes to India, it will be a great opportunity for us,' he added.

MediaTek is a fabless company and gets chips manufactured by outsourcing partners, "Initially the chips which are going to be manufactured in India will be mature nodes. Once that happens, we will review and if it fits all the parameters we will source it from India. At initial stages of manufacturing it is risky to enter the advanced node ecosystem. I think once we see the circuit story of 28 nanometers, we'll then go in that direction of more advanced nodes," he said

India is an important market for MediaTek because of the demography, "The country has a great talent pool and we have a large presence of R&D engineers in India. We are definitely trying to increase our presence here as new segments are coming up like automotive, so we need more engineering strength and to meet the demand we are investing in R&D development," he concluded.