[News] IC Design Price Wave Looms: Power Manage ICs Reportedly Prepares Hike after Lunar New Year

As price hikes sweep through memory, foundry, and OSAT sectors, major fabless chipmakers may be next in line. The Economic Daily News reports that smartphone chip giant MediaTek has already signaled measured price adjustments, while Taiwanese power management IC suppliers are closely watching for the first move. Market sources cited by the report expect the pricing trend among IC design houses to become clearer shortly after the Lunar New Year in mid-February.

MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai, according to the report, addressed the issue during the company’s earnings call in October, 2025, highlighting that amid tight capacity, the company plans to strategically adjust pricing and allocate production across its product lines to account for steadily rising manufacturing costs. Currently, power management ICs are widely seen as the most likely to lead the first successful wave of price increases, the report adds.

As the Economic Daily News explains, IC design houses are feeling growing pressure from persistently higher metal costs, which has also given packaging and testing (OSAT) providers a clear rationale to raise prices. OSAT firms in Taiwan and China have reportedly approached customers, seeking increases of 8% to 15% starting in February or March, while some foundries have begun adjusting their rates as well.

With manufacturing costs continuing to climb, IC design companies have little choice but to follow suit to protect gross margins, signaling that a broader wave of price hikes may be on the horizon.

Memory Crunch Puts MediaTek under Pressure

Meanwhile, Wccftech, citing Chosun Biz, warns that the ongoing DRAM shortage could hit MediaTek’s system-on-chip (SoC) shipments. In the third quarter of 2025, smartphone chipsets made up 53% of the company’s total revenue, leaving MediaTek particularly exposed as DRAM and NAND flash prices soar to record highs, the reports note.

As noted by the report, memory costs have surged sharply—DRAM up around 70% and NAND flash doubling—while Chinese smartphone vendors, MediaTek’s largest customers, have cut shipment forecasts amid memory crunch for the year, clouding the company’s near-term outlook. South China Morning Post and Jiemian News previously reported that Xiaomi has trimmed its 2026 shipment forecast by over 20%, with OPPO, Transsion, and vivo also scaling back orders.

The pressure is set to intensify later this year as MediaTek prepares to launch the Dimensity 9600, its flagship chipset and the company’s most expensive to date, built on TSMC’s cutting-edge 2nm process, as per Wccftech.

As Wccftech points out, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 is priced significantly lower than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, helping the chipmaker remain competitive on cost. However, with the ongoing memory shortage threatening to dampen smartphone shipments in 2026, the company may need to lean more heavily on diversification to offset potential demand headwinds, the report adds.

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(Photo credit: MediaTek)