Samsung reportedly courts MediaTek as it tries to win foundry business from TSMC

Samsung is reportedly trying to bring MediaTek in as a foundry customer, with Chairman Lee Jae-yong said to have visited Taiwan on May 21 for talks with MediaTek CEO Cai Lixing. The reported visit suggests Samsung is becoming more aggressive in its attempt to win major chipmaking clients from TSMC, especially as advanced process and packaging competition becomes more important across AI, mobile, and high performance computing.

The report says Samsung is not only pitching its foundry services, but may also be using memory supply as part of the deal. That matters because high end mobile processors and AI related chips increasingly depend on advanced memory access. If Samsung can offer MediaTek better or preferential access to memory chips, it could make the overall package more attractive than a pure foundry pitch.

Samsung may be using memory access to make its foundry offer harder for MediaTek to ignore

MediaTek is a major mobile chip designer, best known for its Dimensity line of smartphone processors. Winning MediaTek as a foundry customer would be a meaningful victory for Samsung because MediaTek has long depended heavily on TSMC for advanced chip production. It would also help Samsung show that its foundry business can compete for large commercial clients beyond one off or smaller orders.

The report says Samsung has already secured a fabrication order for Tesla’s AI6 chip and is also courting AMD for its 2nm process. If accurate, MediaTek would become another major target in Samsung’s wider plan to rebuild foundry momentum. Still, moving MediaTek away from TSMC would not be easy. TSMC remains the dominant advanced foundry player and has deep relationships with major chip designers.

One reason Samsung may see an opening is that MediaTek’s relationship with TSMC may not be as simple as before. The report notes that MediaTek recently awarded advanced packaging work for Google’s inference focused 8th generation TPU to Intel, while TSMC kept packaging work for the training focused version. Google has reportedly chosen MediaTek as a major design partner for these TPUs, which makes MediaTek more important in the AI hardware supply chain as well as mobile.

That does not mean MediaTek is ready to shift major production away from TSMC. Foundry decisions depend on yield, cost, performance, capacity, packaging options, and long term reliability. Samsung may be improving its position, but TSMC’s lead in advanced manufacturing remains a major barrier.

Samsung’s strategy appears to be broader than simply offering chip production. By combining foundry services with memory access, the company can offer a more complete supply chain package. That could be useful at a time when memory availability and pricing are becoming more important across smartphones, AI accelerators, and data center chips.

For now, the report should be treated as a rumor rather than a confirmed deal. But it shows how Samsung is trying to turn recent momentum into a larger foundry comeback. If it can win MediaTek, or even secure partial orders, it would send a strong signal that Samsung’s foundry business is becoming more competitive against TSMC.