First Read: Asia Semiconductor Insight "2026 AIC: Day 1 takeaways for Ta..."

Research evidence excerpt

First Read: Asia Semiconductor Insight "2026 AIC: Day 1 takeaways for Ta..."

es” include dilution from ramp of N2 and overseas capacity (each may

dilute GM by 2-3%), up to 100bps headwind from rising material cost, etc. We forecast

TSMC’s GM to dip slightly to 65.0% in H226 from 66.8% in H126E.

MediaTek: improving visibility on Google TPU opportunity; upside from new

Cloud ASIC wins and edge AI

For 2027, the Cloud ASIC TAM forecast of US$70-80bn only considers the addressable

accelerator projects, and the TAM forecast does not consider HBM mark up. On Google

TPUs, we recently lifted revenue forecast for MediaTek to US$16bn in 2027 and US

$30.5bn in 2028 on improving visibility of the ramp and increasing capacity support

from TSMC. MediaTek should increase more value add into TPU v9 ramping from late

2027, given the higher technological complexity and larger package design. Meanwhile,

we believe MediaTek is also engaging in new Cloud ASIC opportunities, including

Meta’s MTIA, Tesla’s Dojo 2, and Microsoft Maia 400. These projects should finalize the

vendors soon by H226. MediaTek is proactively pursuing new projects for the longer-

term growth potential, and manage the risk of single large customer, in our view.

Margin wise, Google TPUs should be GM dilutive given the business layout, but we

remain optimistic about the robust operating leverage when in high volume production

and forecast OPM for the TPU project to be 37% in 2027/28E. For the next several years,

MediaTek views smartphone to remain critical with upside from edge AI. We believe

MediaTek is also seeing good potential in automotive and connectivity like satellite

communication.

ASE: strengthening outlook from LEAP with steady mainstream demand