In the smartphone chipset shipments tally, MediaTek leads the pack as the company beat Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung in recording the highest volume for multiple quarters. Sadly, its biggest strength might soon turn into an Achilles’ heel as a new report states that the DRAM shortage could adversely affect MediaTek’s SoC shipments. This is exceptionally worrying, considering that the Dimensity 9600 is expected to launch later this year, and it could potentially be the company’s most expensive silicon ever, thanks to leveraging TSMC’s 2nm process.
Despite the Taiwanese fabless semiconductor manufacturer obtaining a headstart by successfully completing the tape-out of its first 2nm chipset, the Dimensity 9600, MediaTek may want to brainstorm a strategy that will provide it some much-needed relief during the DRAM and NAND flash crisis, whose prices have increased by 70 percent and 100 percent, respectively. This is because Chosun has reported that the firm will be the most affected, as Q3 2025 saw smartphone chipsets account for 53 percent of MediaTek’s quarterly revenue. With Chinese companies reducing their shipment forecasts for the year, the near future isn’t looking too bright because these firms are the SoC maker’s biggest customers.
It also doesn’t help the fact that MediaTek only has one flagship chipset in development, whereas Qualcomm is rumored to introduce two versions this year; the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, giving more options for partners. If MediaTek can retain its edge over Qualcomm in pricing its chipsets more competitively, it is because the company resorts to using ARM CPU and GPU designs, which are proven to be less efficient than the custom Oryon cores.
In an earlier comparison, the Dimensity 9500 was shown to have much worse ‘performance per watt’ metrics than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and A19 Pro in Geekbench 6, showing that unless MediaTek begins developing in-house cores, it may never overtake Qualcomm or Apple in performance or efficiency. Then again, this strategy is currently paying off, as the Dimensity 9500 is also significantly cheaper than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but with the ongoing shortage potentially lowering smartphone shipments in 2026, diversification will be key.
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News Source: Chosun
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