What is the deal between Nvidia and MediaTek?

Nvidia is investing $3.5 billion in MediaTek. MediaTek will adopt Nvidia's technology to design custom chips for AI companies and hyperscalers that can plug into Nvidia-based data centers.

What does MediaTek get from the partnership?

MediaTek gets access to Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, including NVLink, which lets chips communicate quickly. It can also leverage Nvidia's rack-scale architecture for its custom chip designs.

What are Nvidia's other recent partnerships?

Last week, Nvidia announced a similar partnership with Amazon Web Services, albeit without direct investment. AWS will deploy an additional 2 million Nvidia GPUs and integrate NVLink Fusion.

AI Business & IndustryTechCrunch AIAug 31, 2026Sep 1, 2026, 01:00 JST

Nvidia invests $3.5B in MediaTek for custom AI chips

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3 Key Points

What happened
Nvidia is investing $3.5 billion into Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek. As part of the deal, MediaTek will adopt Nvidia's technology to design custom chips for AI companies and hyperscalers that can be plugged into Nvidia-based data centers.
Why it matters
This move comes as AI companies and major cloud providers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic invest in their own chips to be less reliant on Nvidia's GPUs. The partnership lets Nvidia cede ground to custom silicon while keeping its lead as the dominant data center scaffolding, and gives MediaTek access to Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem.
What to watch
MediaTek expects its custom data center ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) business to generate $2 billion in revenue in 2026. The companies will also continue collaborating on DGX Spark and extend to RTX Spark for AI PCs, plus work on AI-powered, software-defined vehicles.

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Context & Analysis

Nvidia's investment in MediaTek marks a strategic shift from being just a GPU maker to an AI infrastructure company. As big cloud providers and AI labs develop their own chips, Nvidia is accommodating custom silicon by ensuring it still provides the data center scaffolding and interconnect technology. This keeps Nvidia central to AI computing even when its own GPUs aren't used.

MediaTek's strength in custom chip design for smartphones, smart homes, and cars positions it well for data center ASICs. With Nvidia's support, MediaTek can offer its customers a standardized rack-scale platform, potentially expanding its custom chip business. The expected $2 billion revenue in 2026 from this segment shows significant growth potential.

The collaboration extends beyond data centers to consumer AI PCs and vehicles, including the DGX Spark and RTX Spark, and AI-powered vehicles using Nvidia Drive AGX. This broad partnership could expand Nvidia's accelerated computing into new markets, as CEO Jensen Huang noted, giving customers the freedom to create differentiated AI systems at scale.

FAQ

What is the deal between Nvidia and MediaTek?: Nvidia is investing $3.5 billion in MediaTek. MediaTek will adopt Nvidia's technology to design custom chips for AI companies and hyperscalers that can plug into Nvidia-based data centers.
What does MediaTek get from the partnership?: MediaTek gets access to Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, including NVLink, which lets chips communicate quickly. It can also leverage Nvidia's rack-scale architecture for its custom chip designs.
What are Nvidia's other recent partnerships?: Last week, Nvidia announced a similar partnership with Amazon Web Services, albeit without direct investment. AWS will deploy an additional 2 million Nvidia GPUs and integrate NVLink Fusion.

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