Top Taiwan chip designer MediaTek says geopolitical risks ‘difficult’ subject

The chief executive of Taiwan’s top chip design company MediaTek said on Wednesday that geopolitical risk is a very difficult subject but they have a strong compliance programme and will not do anything “strange”.

Taiwan is home to major chip firms such as TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, which are at the forefront of supplying companies at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution including Nvidia.

But Taiwan is facing increased military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory, and the prospect Donald Trump could win the Nov. 5 presidential election, who has criticised Taiwan on the campaign trail for stealing U.S. chip business and proposed tariffs on all imports.

Questioned on an earnings call about how MediaTek plans to manage geopolitical risks and tensions such as Trump tariffs and more restrictions on the tech industry, the company’s Chief Executive Rick Tsai said it was something they thought about.

“This is of course a very big and a very difficult subject, and I don’t think any company can elaborate on this risk very well, not to mention there are critical elections coming in one week, so I will not really comment on the specific risk,” he said.

“However I will say for MediaTek we have a very structured and strong compliance programme,” Tsai added.

“We will comply with the rules and regulations from all governments. We will not do, shall we say, strange things. We will protect our company and our shareholders from risk.”

He did not elaborate.

Taiwan tech firms have also had to navigate U.S. curbs on doing business with Chinese companies such as Huawei.

MediaTek is a customer of TSMC’s, which has halted shipments to a client after the company discovered a chip it supplied to the client ended up in a Huawei product.

MediaTek’s shares have risen 27% so far this year, in line with the broader market. They closed down 0.8% on Wednesday.