Technology leader MediaTek opens San Diego office

The smartphone chip business is growing in San Diego.

Expanding its U.S. footprint, Taiwanese-based MediaTek unveiled its San Diego office during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 24.

“North America is a very important market for MediaTek,” said Kristin Taylor, the company’s vice president of public and analyst relations. “Because of that importance, we need to be here to serve clients and operators, the American people, to make sure that they have the technology that we engineer.”

Specializing in providing low-cost radios and apps processors to phone makers primarily in China, MediaTek is now working on “advanced and next generation technologies.”

With 22 locations worldwide, MediaTek has already established its presence in the U.S. in Austin, Boston, Irvine and San Jose.

“We think there’s a lot of engineering talent here and we know we’ll be tapping into that talent by creating the office here,” said Taylor, who added the company has hired and is still recruiting engineers, as well as talent in finance, marketing and other departments. “There are some wonderful universities in town that can be feeders for us.”

Since its founding in 1997, MediaTek has grown to become a market leader and pioneer in cutting-edge system-on-chip solutions for wireless communications, high-definition television, optical storage, and DVD and Blu-ray products.

The company’s newest U.S. branch is located on the fifth floor of 10188 Telesis Court in Sorrento Valley — near the headquarters of rival Qualcomm.

“We’re not on anybody’s heels,” Taylor said. “We’re on our own path and we’re working to serve and support the people that use our technologies. It’s really, really important to MediaTek to stay close to the customers to understand what they want.”

For more information about MediaTek, visit www.mediatek.com.