MediaTek has approved a discretionary financing budget of $5 billion to support its long-term expansion into artificial intelligence (AI) application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for data centres, as the company looks to diversify beyond the smartphone market. The investment will support its strategy to become a major supplier of custom AI chips to cloud service providers. MediaTek has revised its estimate of the addressable market for custom AI chips in 2027 to $80 billion, up from its earlier projection of $70-80 billion. It also raised its target market share to 15-20 per cent from the previously projected 10-15 per cent. The company said its first AI accelerator ASIC is scheduled to enter production in the fourth quarter of 2026, while a second-generation chip is expected to begin volume production in early 2028.