AMD And MediaTek Reportedly Considering Joint Venture

It is being reported that AMD is in talks with MediaTek, with both parties seemingly interested in the idea of a partnership. Specifically, the collaboration could help AMD gain an edge over its CPU rival, Intel, the realm of 5G connectivity.

According to a report by DigiTimes (paywall), the partnership could enable MediaTek to integrate its own SoC and 5G technology into AMD’s own chips. While not wildly popular as its rivals in terms of chip preference, MediaTek’s 5G technology is still regarded to be one of the best in the mobile industry.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the know that this isn’t the first time AMD has dipped its toes into the mobile components pool. As it stands, the chipmaker already has an arrangement with Samsung, whereby the GPU segment of the Korean tech giant’s upcoming Exynos SoC will house at least six Graphics Compute units, powered by AMD’s Radeon RDNA 2 GPU architecture. This also isn’t the first time AMD and MediaTek have collaborated. Prior to this, both companies worked together to create the AMD RZ608 Wi-Fi chip, which ultimately got rebranded as the MT7921K.

On the other hand, this isn’t MediaTek’s first tryst with a GPU maker either. Back in April this year, NVIDIA licensed out its Ampere GPU IP to the Taiwanese semiconductor maker, for the purpose of creating a reference system and SDK for Google Chrome OS and Linux-based PCs. Then in July, during the annual Game Developers Conference, NVIDIA showed off a MediaTek and GeForce RTX 3060-powered Chromebook, running Wolfenstein Youngblood.

Foxconn Enters Into Chipmaking Joint Venture With Yageo

Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn has entered into a joint venture with fellow Taiwanese company Yageo, forming a new firm called XSemi that will be churning out semiconductor chips.

Chip supplies have been strained due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as growing US-China tensions. According to Reuters, Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way said that the semiconductor industry was facing its biggest upheaval in three decades, making strategic partnerships particularly timely now.

Foxconn announced that XSemi would focus on producing semiconductor chips or “small IC” with average selling prices lower than US$2 (~RM8.24). The former claimed that both it and Yageo were holding talks with several global semiconductor firms and would announce more collaborative plans in the industry soon.

Relatedly, the US government is pushing Taiwanese chipmakers to meet the demands of US automakers, which have seen worker layoffs and production delays because of the chip shortage.

“We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and TSMC, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritize the needs of our auto companies since there’s so many American jobs on the line,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at a Tuesday event, Reuters reported.

Raimondo said that the US government was continuously working on that issue, but also noted that the medium- and long-term solution would be to simply make more chips in America.

Baidu Has Picked CEO And Brand Name For Joint Electric Car Company With Geely

Baidu CEO Robin Li announced that the Chinese search giant had settled on a CEO and brand name for the electric car company it recently formed with Geely. He said this during Baidu’s latest earnings call but didn’t reveal the name of the CEO or the name of the new company.

However, CNBC, citing a source, claimed that the man picked for CEO is Xia Yiping, a co-founder of Mobike – a bicycle-sharing start-up. His LinkedIn profile indicated that he worked for Fiat Chrysler and Ford before co-founding Mobike which was bought over by the Chinese food delivery firm Meituan in 2018. However, Baidu declined to comment when it was contacted by CNBC.

In its electric vehicle venture with Geely, the majority shareholder is Baidu and Li has previously described the company as combining Baidu’s expertise in autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise in the automotive industry. But when the venture was announced, it wasn’t clear if self-driving cars were on its roadmap.

Li put that to rest during the aforementioned earnings call, saying that the company envisioned an “intelligent” vehicle with autonomous driving technology, the South China Morning Post reported. He said the new EV company aimed to launch its first vehicle in about three years.

The electric car initiative is part of Baidu’s big push to diversify away from its core advertising business. Baidu is already looking to enter the chip-making business through a new AI semiconductor company.