Taiwanese chipset maker Mediatek to increase local R&D investments to tap Indian EV market; partners Jio Things

Mediatek

Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek will increase its investments in research and development in India's automotive sector to seize the potential in the country's two—and four-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) market.

"The Indian government is investing in semiconductors and is closely discussing that with some Taiwanese companies. MediaTek also invests a lot in the R&D centre, not only in chip design but also in software. We will enhance our R&D centre here for automotive as well," Mike Chang, corporate vice president, MediaTek, said in an interview to Moneycontrol.

The company has R&D centres in Bangalore and Noida.

"India's automotive industry is going through a paradigm shift, and when that happens, it results in new opportunities. India's talent pool can also help tap this opportunity with software and chip system designs," he said, adding government policy and regulations support the automotive sector.

"We will bring the latest SoC to the market. We will use Nvidia BlackWell GPUs to provide the best user experience."

The Taiwanese company has opened talks with Indian two and four-wheeler manufacturers to deploy Made in India IoT modules, apps, and clusters, which comprise the infotainment touch screens used in car dashboards and electric two-wheelers.

Chang said MediaTek chipsets would be in use in five car models by August and 11 new models by the end of the year. The chip maker would leverage its global partnerships with automotive OEMs to create a market for its products.

EV is a growing market in India, especially in the two-wheeler space. "Similar to Taiwan, a large population in India uses two-wheeler vehicles to travel. So, we are very familiar with and very focused on this," Chang, who is in India to meet key clients, said.

MediaTek wants to replicate its success in the smartphone business in the auto segment and is looking to acquire new two and four-wheeler EV makers, he said.

Jio tie-up

To jumpstart the business, the chipmaker on July 25 announced a deal with Jio Things, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, to launch "Made in India" smart module devices specially tailored for the 2-wheeler market. Jio will power these modules with its software and 4G/5G services and offer them to EV makers.

MediaTek's collaboration with Jio aims to leverage their combined strengths in hardware and software, including AI and IoT applications. The partnership would extend into areas like fleet management and customer engagement, a statement said.

Chang said the company expects global automotive players to emerge from India, which could become the world's factory. It would also help grow MediaTek's automotive business.

According to IDC data, Mediatek's chipsets powered 50 percent of India's 146 million smartphones shipped last year.

Referring to the Jio partnership as game-changing, CK Wang, general manager of IoT business at MediaTek, said the partnership is a joint approach to go to customers. "...since we have products in all customer segments, we're able to bring better performance, affordable prices, and local resources to resolving any issues," he added.

According to Jio Things, the EV market is projected to reach Rs 10,000 crore by the end of 2025, with more than 3 million vehicles on the road and growing at a CAGR of 50 percent over five years.

MediaTek will apply GenAI to its automotive technology, similar to smartphone applications.

"It is even more important in automotive as it can improve machine and human interface and the driving experience. We have our internal AI technology and toolchain called neural pilot for developers to develop applications," he said, adding the company's aim is to make technology and solutions affordable to the Indian market so that they can be widely adopted.

India is one of the most promising electronics manufacturing destinations compared to other countries in the Southeast Asian region. With a push from the government, many established companies want to get involved in creating an ecosystem in the country, Chang added.

Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.