NVIDIA will invest $3.5 billion (approximately 4.8 trillion won) in Taiwan-based fabless semiconductor design company MediaTek. The two companies plan to expand their cooperation from customized AI (artificial intelligence) semiconductors to rack-level systems in data centers, strengthening their efforts to capture the AI infrastructure market.
NVIDIA announced on the 31st (local time) that it has purchased $3.5 billion (approximately 4.8 trillion won) worth of convertible bonds (CBs) issued by MediaTek. This marks the largest direct investment NVIDIA has made outside the United States. The two companies will expand their collaboration to build a next-generation AI computing platform covering AI infrastructure, local AI computing, and automotive sectors through this investment.
In particular, MediaTek will launch development of customized AI infrastructure using NVIDIA's "NVLink Fusion" platform. NVLink Fusion is a platform that enables customers to connect their own CPUs (central processing units) or AI accelerators with NVIDIA's AI systems via customized semiconductors.
What both companies emphasized in this collaboration is "rack scale." A rack refers to equipment used in data centers where multiple servers and AI accelerators are installed, and rack scale denotes a method of designing and operating the entire rack as a single computing system rather than individual chips or servers.
Kuo Ming-chi, a researcher at TF International Securities in Taiwan, noted that the term "rack scale" appeared repeatedly in the announcement. This indicates that MediaTek is expanding its AI business scope from IC·ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) design to system-level design.
MediaTek can connect customized semiconductors it develops in collaboration with NVIDIA to NVIDIA's rack systems. This means the company will not limit itself to designing and supplying chips but will expand its business area to ensure that developed chips are quickly applied to actual operating systems in data centers and AI factories.
NVIDIA also stands to benefit. By leveraging MediaTek's capabilities in customized semiconductor design and its customer base, NVIDIA can expand its rack-scale ecosystem into the customized AI semiconductor market. Researcher Kuo analyzes that MediaTek will broaden its business scope from chips to systems, while NVIDIA will extend into the customized semiconductor market, securing new growth opportunities for both companies.
The two companies will also expand their collaboration in the PC and automotive sectors. They will jointly develop chips for RTX Spark and DGX Spark, which combine NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units) with MediaTek SoCs (system-on-chips). These chips are expected to be utilized in consumer PCs, supercomputers for AI developers, enterprise workstations, and more. Cooperation on developing AI-based SDV (software-defined vehicle) platforms will also continue.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, stated, "AI is transforming all computing platforms, from the world's largest AI factories to PCs and automobiles," adding that "MediaTek is a global semiconductor company with outstanding capabilities in system-on-chip design, connectivity, performance, and power efficiency."
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