According to reports, although the supply of Wi-Fi core chips continued to be tight in the first half of this year, the shipments of MediaTek and Realtek showed signs of improvement in the first quarter. According to industry sources, both MediaTek and Realtek continue to strive for more available 16nm and 12nm chip production capacity for Wi-Fi core chips.

According to reports, many IC design companies pointed out that although 28nm is currently the largest process node in production, it is likely that this node will remain in tight supply in the next few years. Some applications are moving towards more advanced process nodes and seeking more production capacity support.

While there won‘t be a lot of Wi-Fi 6E production this year, sources estimate that production will increase over the next two years and will use 16nm and 12nm process products. In the future, Wi-Fi 7 will use a more advanced process. Although the relevant demand will not expand significantly until after 2025, both MediaTek and Realtek have already started preparations.

At present, among Taiwanese companies, only TSMC can stably provide the production capacity of related processes. Therefore, some people worry that the supply of 16nm, 14nm and 12nm will only become more and more tight. Several IC design companies have urged UMC to promote mass production of related manufacturing process nodes to meet the growing market demand in the future.

Both MediaTek and Realtek have strong foundry capabilities, and this advantage is reflected in the shipment of their Wi-Fi core chip products. People familiar with the Wi-Fi core chip market believe that MediaTek‘s Wi-Fi 6 shipments in the first half of this year will be considerable, and will expand with the expansion of router and notebook application shipments.

In addition to maintaining a stable share in the existing market, Realtek is gradually starting to supply more mid-to-high-end product lines, and it also confirmed at a previous investor meeting that its market share has increased.