Supply of chipsets to improve by year-end: Mediatek

Electronic chip company Mediatek expects the supply of chipsets to ease by the end of this year as the capacities to manufacture semiconductors are being built across the world, a senior company official said on Thursday. Mediatek India Managing Director Anku Jain told PTI that it does not have a semiconductor plant of its own and would like to collaborate with chips makers and other vendors that have proposed to set up their facilities in India.

"No doubt, there has been a chipset shortage issue in the last one to two years. The reason was, you know, demand was so much during the pandemic that no one anticipated and secondly, disruption in supply chains," Jain said while speaking on the sidelines of 5G India Leadership Summit 2022.

He said that MediaTek has a very good relationship with original equipment makers and also with other foundry partners which helped the company manage the situation.

"I feel personally that by the end of this year, the situation should improve because the capacity is being built as we speak around the world," Jain said.

According to Counterpoint Research, Mediatek has been the top chipset supplier for mobile phones since July-September quarter 2020. The company claims leadership in the smart TV segment with 65 per cent global market share and in retail broadband devices with 40 per cent market share.

Jain said the company is seeing an increase in demand for India. Besides mobile phones it will focus on technology for the internet of things and smart homes segment.

According to him, the government's Rs 76,000 crore-Semicon India programme looks ambitious and there is a serious intent visible from the government to make it successful.

"I think the government has tried in the past as well but this time seems to be a bit different with very, very high chances of being successful," Jain said.

The government has received proposals from five companies for setting up electronic chip and display manufacturing plants with investment of Rs 1.53 lakh crore.

Vedanta Foxconn JV, IGSS Ventures, ISMC propose to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants with USD 13.6 billion investment and have sought support of USD 5.6 billion from the Centre under the Rs 76,000 crore Semicon India Programme.

"At MediaTek, we design chips and then someone manufactures for us like for example TSMC. So, if a company in India is able to offer great manufacturing facilities, it's good news for me because we can source it locally and do stuff here. If the entire ecosystem comes to India, I think it's great news for companies like us," Jain said.