MediaTek (TWSE: 2454) expects to capture about 20% of the global market for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) used in AI accelerators next year, Focus Taiwan reported on October 31. Chief Executive Officer Rick Tsai told investors the custom chip should bring in about $16bn in sales in 2027, at the upper end of the company's earlier projection.

The target would make Taiwan's largest IC designer a major supplier of chips for AI data centres, where demand for infrastructure has climbed sharply during the current boom. MediaTek began shipping its first AI accelerator ASIC only in September.

Tsai told an investor conference that strong orders should lift sales of the chip to about $2.5bn in the fourth quarter. He said the outlook for 2027 kept improving as the AI market expanded.

According to Tsai, a successor ASIC built for next-generation AI infrastructure is due to enter commercial production in the first quarter of 2028. He said the new chip would deliver several times more efficiency per watt at a much lower total cost. He added that it would strengthen MediaTek's market position and lift revenue substantially.

Helped by the AI chip's launch, the company forecast fourth-quarter consolidated sales of TWD210.1bn ($6.44bn) to TWD221.8bn ($6.8bn), an increase of 25% to 32% on the third quarter. It projected gross margin of 43.5% to 46.5% for the period. Tsai said full-year 2026 sales growth in US dollar terms could beat the company's earlier guidance of a high single-digit rise.

Third-quarter consolidated sales reached TWD168.06bn, 10.4% higher than in the previous quarter. The company attributed the gain to mass production of several chips for smart devices and higher DRAM prices. Gross margin edged up 0.1 percentage points to 46.3%.

Net profit for the July to September period rose 14.6% quarter on quarter to TWD27.88bn, with earnings per share of TWD17.5.

Over the first nine months of the year, sales grew 5.3% year on year to TWD469.39bn, while gross margin fell 1.7 percentage points to 46.3%. Net profit for the period totalled TWD76.37bn, or TWD47.94 per share.