Taiwan's MediaTek may be better known globally for powering budget smartphones, but Goldman Sachs is betting the chipmaker's next act will be defined by artificial intelligence infrastructure — and the numbers behind that bet are striking.
The U.S. investment bank has lifted its 12-month price target for MediaTek (TWSE: 2454) from NT$2,454 to NT$5,000, implying roughly 74% upside from the stock's recent trading price of NT$2,870. The revision reflects a sweeping reassessment of the company's AI-focused chip business, which analysts now believe is at an inflection point rather than a steady climb.
At the center of the upgrade is MediaTek's AI application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) division. Goldman Sachs has more than doubled its revenue forecast for this segment — from US$19 billion to US$48 billion by 2028 — and projects it will account for two-thirds of the company's total revenue by that point. Crucially, analysts stress the upgrade cycle is still nascent, with the most significant earnings impact expected to materialize over the next two to three years.
The margin story is equally compelling. Goldman Sachs projects operating margins will jump from 22% in 2027 to 33% in 2028, driven by a structural shift in product value rather than volume alone. The bank points to MediaTek's development of a second advanced packaging technology as a key catalyst, noting that management has expressed strong confidence in both the technical merits and execution timeline of the solution.
MediaTek's own guidance has grown notably more aggressive. The company doubled its 2026 AI ASIC revenue target — from "over US$1 billion" to US$2 billion — and signaled ambitions to scale the business to several billion dollars annually by 2027. Management also indicated it expects to capture greater high-value content share in its next-generation AI ASIC project, where average selling prices are forecast to be several times higher than current offerings.
The addressable market itself is expanding faster than previously anticipated. MediaTek now estimates the global AI ASIC market will reach US$70–80 billion as early as 2027, pulling forward a threshold that earlier forecasts had placed in 2028. For Goldman Sachs, that timeline compression only strengthens the bull case.
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