Wi-Fi 6 chip vendors bullish on rising end-market device demand

A number of Taiwan-based suppliers for Wi-Fi 6 chips are bullish about their shipment prospects for the second quarter 2020 and beyond, as the emerging stay-at-home economy is flaring up demand for end-market devices supporting 802.11ax, according to industry sources.

IC vendors including MediaTek, Realtek Semiconductor and RichWave all expect their shipments of Wi-Fi 6 chips to more than double sequentially in the second quarter thanks to the growing popularity of Wi-Fi 6 devices that are needed to meet rising remote work and learning, gaming and audio applications, said the sources.

Having begun shipping its next-generation Wi-Fi 6 RF solutions in cooperation with Qualcomm and Broadcom since the first quarter, RichWave expects its shipments of Wi-Fi 6 products to come out strongly in 2020, the sources said.

RichWave has seen that the pace of recovery of domestic demand in China is accelerating, with orders from enterprise clients ramping up and terminal routers becoming a standard for the prevailing home economy – highlighting the growth momentum for Wi-Fi 6 devices, the sources said.

With its share in China’s Wi-Fi RF chip market much higher than the 5% share it holds globally, the growing sales of Wi-Fi 6 RF chips are likely to contribute 20% to RichWave’s total revenues in 2020, said the sources.

MediaTek and Realtek also enjoy robust shipments of related Wi-Fi 6 chips currently, prompting the two firms to increase their wafer starts at upstream wafer foundry houses and also to scramble more capacity at probe card suppliers, the sources indicated.

―Digitimes