Samsung's chairman delivers a devastating blow.

Chairman Lee Jae-yong partners with MediaTek to expand its position in the chip manufacturing sector. Photo: Bloomberg .

Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong led a high-level delegation on a secret visit to MediaTek's headquarters in Taiwan on May 21st. He met directly with MediaTek Chairman Tsai Ming-kai, CEO Tsai Li-hsing, and other key executives. This information was confirmed by DigiTimes and several local media outlets.

Accordingly, the main objective of the trip was to secure the MediaTek semiconductor wafer manufacturing order for Samsung.

To increase its competitiveness, the South Korean giant is employing a familiar and highly effective tactic recently. The company is proposing special incentives to ensure MediaTek has priority access to Samsung's memory chip supply when developing its next-generation Dimensity phone platform. In return, Samsung will fulfill its semiconductor chip manufacturing orders.

This strategy isn't new to Samsung. Previously, the company used its mobile phone business to acquire Qualcomm chips, thereby attracting partners to become chip manufacturing customers. This time, Samsung is using its advantage in memory chips, a segment experiencing strong growth thanks to the AI craze, as a similar leverage.

The visit to MediaTek comes as Samsung is striving to improve its position in the chip manufacturing outsourcing sector, where the company lags significantly behind TSMC.

Recent signals indicate that Samsung is making good progress. The manufacturer's 2nm GAA processing technology is reported to have reached a mass production rate of 50%. The Exynos 2600 processor has successfully entered mass production, demonstrating improvements in process stability.

Samsung is close to securing a massive order from MediaTek. Photo: Bloomberg .

Korean analysts predict Samsung's 2nm chip orders will increase by 130% this year. In 2025, Tesla signed a $16.5 billion chip manufacturing contract with Samsung, outsourcing the production of AI6 components using the 2nm process.

Notably, Samsung's visit coincided with the time when MediaTek was selected by Google as the manufacturer of its 8th generation TPU. This is a massive contract, marking a significant turning point for MediaTek in the field of AI chips for data centers.

Meanwhile, MediaTek recently placed an order for advanced TPU production with Intel, indicating that the Taiwanese (China) chipmaker is diversifying its manufacturing partners instead of relying entirely on TSMC.