From counting money with tears to counting money with a smile.

01

October is the golden season for mobile phone manufacturers to release new phones. vivo has the X200 series, OPPO has the Find X8 series, Xiaomi has the 15 series, and Honor has the Magic7 series, all of which are the most important flagship products of each manufacturer. As a chip supplier, MediaTek kicked off the year by announcing its flagship chip, the Dimensity 9400.

The order in which guests appeared at the conference was interesting. vivo's CTO Shi Yujian led the way, followed by OPPO's Senior Vice President Duan Yaohui, and finally, Redmi's General Manager Wang Teng, known for his cautious approach. The first two are regulars at MediaTek events, while Wang Teng made his debut on the MediaTek stage; in previous years, it was Zeng Xuezhong who attended.

There's nothing majorly wrong with this arrangement. vivo is one of the mobile phone manufacturers that uses MediaTek chips the most extensively and deeply, allocating almost all of its premium X series and S series Pro models to Dimensity chips. Both companies have a team of hundreds of people working together to fine-tune the Dimensity chips. vivo's X series has been performing well in recent years, contributing to mutual success.

Although it was a MediaTek event, the tension surrounding the promotion of new phones was palpable. vivo stated that when it comes to fine-tuning Dimensity chips, look to vivo. This claim by vivo has been echoed for years, with a strong foundation among consumers, and vivo has always been the first to launch Dimensity flagship chips.

OPPO has also become wiser, proclaiming, "The upper limit of Dimensity performance is with OPPO," setting a new standard. Redmi, with its deep roots in MediaTek, felt a bit dissatisfied but couldn't use a competitor's slogan at the same event. Instead, they cleverly added the prefix "performance" to their tuning claim, shouting, "For Dimensity performance tuning, look to Redmi." After all, isn't performance the most important aspect of a chip? This approach didn't put them at a disadvantage.

Watching the lively scene at his own event, MediaTek could barely contain its laughter from under the covers. After so many years of frustration, when has MediaTek ever received such treatment?

In the past, mobile phones using MediaTek chips faced criticism for being overpriced if they cost more than 3,000 yuan, despite their low-end specifications. Many manufacturers were hesitant to mention that they used MediaTek chips during press conferences, and journalists struggled to find the words "MediaTek" or "MTK" in their thousands of words of news releases.

This can't be blamed on others; MediaTek's low-end image is deeply entrenched. Jokes about "one core struggling, eight cores watching" are still fresh in people's minds, and MediaTek's frustration at "counting money with tears" is etched in many people's memories.

But in recent years, MediaTek has also turned things around.

Last year, the Dimensity 9300 conference was held after the Snapdragon 8Gen3 announcement. This year, MediaTek confidently unveiled its new product ahead of Qualcomm. Leading mobile phone manufacturers are increasingly drawn to partnering with MediaTek. Upcoming flagship models like the vivo X200 series, OPPO Find X8 series, and Redmi K80 series will all use the Dimensity 9400. Of course, these products are generally dual-platform, using both Dimensity and Qualcomm's latest processors. Surprisingly, even Samsung has rumored that its flagship Galaxy S25 may use MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 next year.

In the past, everyone was hesitant and lacked confidence, but now they're all sitting at the same table, drinking and dining together, brotherly.

02

MediaTek's rise in high-end chips can be attributed not only to its own efforts but also to the strong support of domestic mobile phone manufacturers like vivo and OPPO.

vivo is arguably the mobile phone brand with the highest "Dimensity content." From the vivo X70 to the current X200, they primarily use Dimensity chips, forming a deep partnership with MediaTek and establishing a joint laboratory. Although vivo doesn't have its own SoC research and development, it has mastered the entire technology chain of flagship SoC development through joint research and development, from planning to research and fine-tuning. In turn, MediaTek's flagship chip platform has achieved significant shipments in high-end models, earning both fame and fortune.

OPPO follows a similar path, with the Find X series offering dual platforms in almost every generation, with the standard version using Dimensity and the Pro or Ultra versions using Qualcomm's flagship chips. Redmi has had its ups and downs, switching from Qualcomm's mid-range chips to MediaTek with the K50 series before returning to Qualcomm for subsequent generations and now using a mix of Dimensity and Qualcomm chips.

It's worth mentioning the unfortunate case of Meizu. Due to patent fees, Meizu had a falling out with Qualcomm and pinned its hopes on MediaTek, collaborating closely on chip fine-tuning and using MediaTek chips in its flagship models. However, those years were not kind to MediaTek, straining Meizu's resources and pushing it from the mainstream to the fringes. After reconciling with Qualcomm, Meizu finally had access to Qualcomm chips, but MediaTek had already gained momentum. It must have been painful for Meizu to watch its former partner thrive with others.

Of course, every success story has its share of competitors' missteps.

The Dimensity 9000 marked a turning point for MediaTek's ascent into the high-end market. The previous year, Qualcomm released the Snapdragon 888, choosing an auspicious number to appeal to Chinese culture and the market. However, this generation of chips suffered from overheating issues, damaging its reputation in the market and even affecting subsequent Snapdragon flagship chips.

MediaTek seized this opportunity, gradually gaining recognition from manufacturers and consumers through steady iterations of the Dimensity 9XXX series over the years.

In MediaTek's own words, the Dimensity brand has achieved 90% recognition five years after its inception. The Dimensity 9300 generated $1 billion in revenue for MediaTek in 2023, contributing to a 70% increase in the company's overall revenue. For several quarters, MediaTek has been the world's largest shipper of mobile phone chips.

In the past, Qualcomm easily outperformed MediaTek, and few would consider placing them on the same competitive stage. But now, they both have super-large cores, both use TSMC's 3nm process, and both emphasize AI capabilities. MediaTek is even hailed as one of the "Big Three" in the mobile chip industry, alongside Qualcomm and Apple. Since Apple's chips are not sold externally, the industry has essentially become a competition between Qualcomm and MediaTek, with the underperforming Samsung Exynos even shunned by its own people.

The growing closeness between domestic mobile phone manufacturers and MediaTek is not a criticism of Qualcomm but rather a strategic consideration for supply chain security and product differentiation. Additionally, MediaTek's products are more affordable, albeit requiring additional effort from manufacturers to compensate for any shortcomings, such as weaker GPU performance, which some have addressed through self-developed ISP chips.

Qualcomm has remained steady and avoided major missteps. This year, the Snapdragon returned to its in-house developed Oryon CPU architecture, shared with Snapdragon laptop chips, blurring the lines between mobile and desktop platforms. This means that Snapdragon mobile chips have caught up with laptop performance to some extent, with ultra-large cores reaching clock speeds above 4.0GHz. Lu Weibing boasts of ultra-high clock speeds, superior performance, and ultra-low power consumption.

Fortunately, MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 has kept pace, entering the era of all-large-core mobile chips with its Arm Cortex-X5 ultra-large core. MediaTek even challenged Qualcomm from afar, claiming that the Dimensity 9400 has a solid foundation and doesn't need to chase high frequencies. However, as Lei Jun once said, "A larger foundation or frequency can overwhelm the competition." It's essential not to forget the hardships of the past just because things are going well now.

In reality, there is still a significant gap between MediaTek and Qualcomm in terms of brand image and technological reserves. Qualcomm holds far more patents than MediaTek and was recently sued by Huawei for patent infringement. While vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi frequently choose the more affordable MediaTek chips for their flagship models, they still unconditionally trust Qualcomm for their most premium products.

03

In the first half of this year, MediaTek's cumulative revenue reached NT$260.73 billion, an increase of 34.5% year-on-year. The Dimensity 9300 generated $1 billion in revenue for MediaTek in 2023. Unsurprisingly, the Dimensity 9400 will also bring significant financial returns to MediaTek.

Years ago, MediaTek, which started by providing turnkey solutions to white-label phone manufacturers, always dreamed of entering the high-end chip market but struggled to gain traction. MediaTek previously launched a high-end chip brand called Helio and even spent millions on an online naming contest, but Helio didn't perform well.

Many criticized MediaTek for short-sightedness, arguing that its high-end chips were sold as low-end products to boost shipments. MediaTek's response, "counting money with tears," resonated with its Taiwanese corporate culture. Now, MediaTek can finally count its money with a smile.

Surprisingly, for the Dimensity 9400, MediaTek pulled off a bold move by inviting Xin Zhilei as its spokesperson. Is this a shift from being the big brother to being the big sister?

Many find it puzzling why a chipmaker would need a spokesperson. Although MediaTek makes consumer electronics chips, chips are still components within a larger system, and there's no real need for a spokesperson. Consumer perception isn't swayed by spokespeople. Intel attempted a similar strategy in the past, and look where they are now. If MediaTek has too much money, perhaps they should consider lowering chip prices instead.