Samsung Chairman Makes Surprise Taiwan Visit in Bold Bid to Steal MediaTek from TSMC

A Stealth Move on Taiwanese Soil

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong made a quiet but consequential trip to Taiwan on 21 May, walking unannounced into MediaTek's headquarters for a closed-door meeting with CEO Rick Tsai. The visit, first reported by Taiwanese outlets including DigiTimes, was confirmed by local suppliers who said several senior Samsung executives joined Lee. The timing was striking: it came just days after Samsung resolved bruising labour and wage negotiations that had threatened a major strike, suggesting Lee moved decisively to reassure global clients about supply stability.

Challenging TSMC's Stranglehold

MediaTek, the largest smartphone chip designer outside Qualcomm, currently manufactures nearly all of its chips at TSMC. Industry analysts believe Samsung is attempting to crack that relationship by leveraging an unusual angle, the global memory chip shortage driven by relentless AI server demand. The pitch is reportedly a bundled package combining Samsung's advanced foundry services with priority access to its dominant memory chip supply, an offer TSMC structurally cannot match. The discussions may also have touched on supply of MediaTek's Dimensity application processors, which Samsung has increasingly used in its entry-level Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Samsung Foundry's Comeback Story

The Taiwan trip reflects renewed confidence inside Samsung's foundry division, which posted staggering multi-trillion-won losses from 2022 onward. That picture has shifted dramatically in 2026. The company secured a $16.5 billion next-generation AI chip contract from Tesla in 2025 and has reportedly won or is finalising orders from Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm. Foundry utilisation rates exceeded 80 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, and Mirae Asset Securities raised its target price for Samsung in early May citing the expanding order pipeline.

The Road Ahead Remains Steep

Despite the momentum, displacing TSMC will be no easy feat. Reports surfaced in April that Qualcomm was considering shifting some 2-nanometre orders back to TSMC from Samsung over yield concerns. MediaTek has deep, long-standing ties with TSMC and has committed to using its most advanced process nodes for premium smartphone chips. Whether Samsung's memory-foundry bundling pitch is compelling enough to fracture that loyalty remains the open question, but the very fact that Lee Jae-yong personally flew to Taiwan signals just how aggressively Samsung intends to compete for the future of advanced chipmaking.