MediaTek is a fabless company headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, manufacturing all chips at TSMC. MediaTek supplies Dimensity SoCs for Android smartphones, MT79xx WiFi 6/6E/7 chips for routers, and display controllers. All Taiwan-origin MediaTek chips face only the 10% Section 122 surcharge.
MediaTek is headquartered in Taiwan, but most components are manufactured in Taiwan, South Korea. For US customs purposes, the COO is where the component is manufactured — not where the company is based. Declaring Taiwan as COO when parts ship from Taiwan is a customs violation.
Dimensity SoCs, WiFi chipsets, PMIC — primary fab
Some legacy process production
| Country | Sec 122 | Sec 301 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | 10% | — | 10% |
| South Korea | 10% | — | 10% |
* Section 301 rates shown for electronics HTS chapters (8541–8542). Rates vary by product.
| HTS Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 8542.31.0000 | Dimensity SoCs, MT67xx/68xx/79xx application processors |
| 8542.39.0000 | MT7xxx WiFi/BT chips, MT56xx display timing controllers |
MediaTek is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Hsinchu, competing directly with Qualcomm in the mobile SoC, WiFi chipset, and smart home IC markets. All MediaTek wafer fabrication is outsourced to TSMC — Dimensity flagship SoCs use TSMC 4 nm and 3 nm nodes; mid-range Dimensity and Helio series use TSMC 6 nm and 7 nm. Back-end assembly and test for MediaTek products occurs primarily at ASE Group facilities in Taiwan and Malaysia. Because MediaTek is headquartered in Taiwan and fabricates in Taiwan, Taiwan is the declared COO for the vast majority of MediaTek ICs entering the US market. Taiwan-origin MediaTek products face the 10% Section 122 surcharge with no Section 301 exposure.
MediaTek's product line covers HTS 8542.31.0000 for application processors and SoCs (Dimensity 9300, 8300, MT6893 Helio G99), HTS 8542.39.0000 for WiFi and Bluetooth chipsets (MT7986A, MT7922, MT7902), display timing controllers (MT8195T for tablets), and power management ICs (MT6370). For all Taiwan-COO MediaTek products: 10% Section 122. MediaTek's WiFi 6/6E router chip line (MT7986, MT7916, MT7915) is heavily used in US-market consumer routers from TP-Link, Netgear, and ASUS; the 10% duty on these chips represents a meaningful per-unit cost in router BOM structures. MediaTek does not operate any manufacturing in China, making it free of Section 301 exposure.
MediaTek holds significant market share in the WiFi router chipset market, particularly for the 802.11ax (WiFi 6) and tri-band WiFi 6E/WiFi 7 segments. The MT7986A (Filogic 830) and MT7988 (Filogic 880) are 4-core ARM Cortex-A73 router SoCs used in mid-to-high-end consumer routers and mesh systems. US OEMs and router manufacturers importing MediaTek-based PCBs or complete router units should note that the SoC itself is Taiwan-COO (10%), but the assembled PCB or finished router may be classified under different HTS headings with COO determined by the final assembly location. Routers assembled in Taiwan face 10%; assembled in China face approximately 35% for the complete unit.
MediaTek's Dimensity SoCs power a large portion of Android smartphones from Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and Samsung Galaxy A/M series. These phones are assembled in China, Vietnam, and India, with final product COO determined by the assembly location. For US imports of smartphones, the relevant COO and tariff rate is for the finished device, not the component SoC. However, US OEMs or ODMs importing Dimensity chipsets as components for US assembly would classify the SoC under 8542.31.0000 at 15% (Taiwan COO). MediaTek has been subject to US export control concerns regarding supply to Huawei, but this does not affect standard imports of MediaTek chipsets by non-sanctioned entities.
MediaTek's MT76xx series (WiFi/BT for embedded modules), MT2625/MT2523 (NB-IoT/GPS), and MT8xxx tablet processors are widely used in US IoT product development. Module manufacturers such as Murata, USI, and Azurewave build WiFi modules on MediaTek MT76xx chipsets, with modules assembled in Taiwan or Malaysia (both 10% COO). For IoT product designers importing MediaTek-based WiFi modules (HTS 8517.62.0000), the tariff rate depends on the module's COO — typically Taiwan (10%) for MediaTek-chipset modules. Confirm module COO at the FCC ID application stage where manufacturing location is declared, as this aligns with the customs COO for most module products.
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