[News] Alchip Says Key Customer’s AI Chip Enters Mass Production in May; ASICs Seen Outpacing GPU CAGR

As global CSPs accelerate efforts to reduce reliance on NVIDIA through custom silicon, ASICs are gaining momentum across the industry, supporting growth prospects for partners such as Alchip. According to Commercial Times, during Alchip’s earnings call on the 26th, Chairman Johnny Shen said that while ASICs may still need time to surpass GPUs in overall market size, their growth momentum is currently stronger. He added that ASICs could potentially achieve a higher CAGR than GPUs in the future, suggesting demand for customized AI chips is entering a new phase of rapid growth.

Other industry players have expressed similar views. According to Liberty Times, GUC said that as AI computing shifts from model training to end applications, ASICs could deliver significantly higher performance per watt for inference than costly general-purpose GPUs, potentially driving shipment growth beyond GPUs.

Signs of growing ASIC momentum are also emerging across the industry. As noted by Commercial Times, MediaTek confirmed during its recent earnings call that its first ASIC project will enter mass production on schedule. The company doubled its forecast for AI ASIC revenue contribution this year from US$1 billion to US$2 billion. A second AI ASIC project is also underway, targeting mass production by the end of 2027.

While ASIC momentum continues to build, Shen also commented on the evolving CPU landscape. According to Commercial Times, he said the market remains dominated by x86 solutions from Intel and AMD. Although Arm, RISC-V, and customized CPUs offer advantages in cost and differentiation, entering the customized CPU market remains more challenging than developing ASIC accelerators. Still, Shen emphasized that Alchip has longstanding experience in CPU design services and could benefit as CPU architectures move toward 3D integration and leading-edge nodes.

ASIC Demand and AWS Ramps Point to Stronger 2H26 Momentum

Alchip remains confident in its future revenue and profit growth outlook. According to Economic Daily News, the company said a major customer’s chip design project entered mass production in May and is expected to become a key driver of strong revenue growth this year and next.

MoneyDJ reports that Alchip remains confident in achieving revenue growth this year, with its North American customer’s 3nm AI accelerator entering mass shipments and supporting strong quarter-over-quarter gains in revenue beginning in the third quarter. The company’s 2nm projects are also said to be progressing smoothly, with tape-out targeted by year-end, further reinforcing expectations for a second-half acceleration.

That outlook may also be supported by continued progress in customers’ next-generation ASIC roadmaps. According to TrendForce, Amazon’s Trainium 3 is expected to begin ramping in 2Q26 following the rollout of Trainium 2/2.5, although shipment momentum may become more visible in the second half as software maturity improves and system validation advances.

Meanwhile, Alchip also highlighted tightening advanced process capacity. According to MoneyDJ, Shen said demand for 3nm capacity is currently extremely tight and, in his view, even more concerning than memory shortages. As a result, maintaining a strong partnership with TSMC is particularly important for securing allocations of advanced node capacity.

Read more

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(Photo credit: Alchip on LinkedIn)