MediaTek has released a new 5G smartphone chip — Dimensity 9000 — targeting to sell to makers of premium-priced Android smartphones.
Qualcomm currently dominates the chip business for 5G smartphone makers.

The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based MediaTek said its new Dimensity 9000 chip will be the world’s first to use its manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s (TSMC) “N4” chipmaking process, which helps makes chips smaller and faster. MediaTek said it will also be the first smartphone chip to feature a powerful new computing core from Arm Ltd called the Cortex X2.

MediaTek is one of only three firms in the world that makes 5G smartphone chips.

MediaTek already counts many of the contenders for that market share, such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo as customers, but many of those brands use MediaTek for their low and mid-tier devices and rely on Qualcomm for higher-end models.

David Ku, MediaTek’s chief financial officer, said the 9000 chip was the first in what will be a series of chips aimed at persuading those customers to switch to using MediaTek in their flagship devices.

MediaTek hit $10 billion in revenue for the first time last year, and Ku said it expects to hit $17 billion in revenue this year. He said that while 4G smartphone chips sometimes sold for $10, 5G chips can sell for $30 to even $50.