MediaTek And NVIDIA Reportedly Co-Developing Snapdragon X Elite Competitor, Design To Be Finalized In Q3, Using TSMC’s 3nm Process

Qualcomm’s  will eventually face competition in the ARM-based AI chipset space from MediaTek and NVIDIA, who have reportedly joined forces to co-develop a new SoC whose design is said to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. The upcoming silicon is said to support advanced technologies, including being mass produced on TSMC’s 3nm process, with the new entrant possibly competing with Apple’s M4 when comparing lithography.

The unnamed chipset from MediaTek and NVIDIA is rumored to fetch a price of $300 per unit, likely due to leveraging advanced nodes and packaging technologies

With the AI PC segment estimated to grow massively by 2027, MediaTek and NVIDIA want to pounce on this opportunity, giving this category a healthy dose of competition. The Taiwanese fabless semiconductor manufacturer has already received praise from Morgan Stanley analysts for its Dimensity 9300, so there is no question that the company’s chip-making prowess has a gold-standard label. Add NVIDIA to the mix, and we could see an SoC that overtakes the competition in graphics performance, though Economic News Daily has not mentioned this

What the report does mention is that the co-developed chipset could be priced at $300, making it a costly component. However, with TSMC said to mass produce it using its 3nm process, the manufacturing costs will skyrocket thanks to utilizing a more advanced process. Also, just like Apple mentioned that the M4 is fabricated on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, the unnamed chipset from MediaTek and NVIDIA could also take advantage of the same technology.

Design verification of the chipset is expected to occur in the fourth quarter, with mass production reportedly commencing in the first half of 2025. Interestingly, financial analyst Dan Nystedt, who shared the information on X, mentioned that TSMC will utilize its CoWoS (Chip-on-wafer-on-substrate) packaging for MediaTek’s and NVIDIA’s co-developed SoC. However, the actual report does not mention this packaging, so it could have been an error on his part, or Google’s machine translation is not churning out the right results.

MediaTek and NVIDIA have partnered up previously, but it was to bring GPU chiplets to the automotive space back then. Based on past information, it appears that both firms have a healthy business relationship, which will do wonders for their upcoming chipset launch, but sadly, this is all the information we have for you now, so stay tuned for more updates.