Mandeep Singh, who runs technology research for Bloomberg Intelligence, takes apart Nvidia's $3.5 billion investment in the Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek: what the money buys, why investors keep calling these deals circular, and which competitor the agreement is really aimed at. This is the first of four guest segments in the episode, each summarized separately.
👤 Guest: Mandeep Singh, global head of tech research at Bloomberg Intelligence, the firm's in-house research arm
🎙️ Hosts: Paul Sweeney and Scarlet Fu, who present Bloomberg Intelligence's weekday markets program
📰 Published: 31 August 2026 on the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast feed
🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 22 min
Key Takeaways
The circular-financing complaint is already priced into Nvidia's multiple
"They're not trading like everyone else in terms of earnings or free cash flow multiples."
Singh put Nvidia's free cash flow at over $200 billion a year
What Nvidia sells a rival chip designer is the networking, not the accelerator
Marvell first, MediaTek now, and Singh said the offer is open to anyone building an accelerator
The pitch is scaling one chip into "a much bigger chip kind of entity" that can carry hyperscaler inference workloads
Interoperability is the strategy, even when the chip on the other end is a competitor's
"So from that standpoint, interoperability is a good thing, whether it's Google TPUs or their own chips, and that's why they are going to all these suppliers here."
The market is growing fast enough that investors put up with the deal structures
"Nvidia has just guided to over $650 billion in annual revenue by next calendar year.", on almost 80% share of accelerators
Singh conceded the financing may pull demand forward, and said the growth rate swamps it
The target is Google, not MediaTek
Google was planning to ramp up beyond Broadcom with MediaTek, Singh said
Nvidia is locking up capacity at TSMC, MediaTek "or any fab provider"
Nvidia Puts $3.5 Billion Into MediaTek, and the First Question Is Circular Financing
The show opened on the deal: Nvidia is investing $3.5 billion in MediaTek, a Taiwanese chipmaker, and the agreement broadens a partnership between the two chip designers. A host framed the reaction that has followed every Nvidia investment this year — that there are so many concerns, "maybe accusations, that a lot of the investments and deals that Nvidia makes kind of goes round and round in this small little ecosystem."
Singh said the complaint has already cost Nvidia its rating. "They're not trading like everyone else in terms of earnings or free cash flow multiples."
"So everyone right now is critical of their circular financing."
His defense of this particular deal is that it widens the field rather than closing it. "But look, in this case, they want to expand the ecosystem."
He set the cheque against the cash the company throws off — Nvidia generates over $200 billion in free cash flow a year, he said, and there are benefits to the spending
The MediaTek agreement is the second of its kind, not the first. "They did that with Marvell first, now with MediaTek."
What the Money Buys Is a Place Inside Everyone Else's Rack
Singh's read is that Nvidia is not paying to stop rival accelerators. It is paying to make sure that when one gets built, it is wired together with Nvidia's networking — which is the part of the data center that decides whether a pile of chips behaves like one machine.
The offer goes to every accelerator designer, not just MediaTek. "I mean, essentially, anybody who is making an accelerator chip right now, Nvidia is saying, we provide the networking technology that can help you scale up that chip into a much bigger chip kind of entity that can run these large inference workloads that every large hyperscaler is doing."
That is why a competitor's silicon on the other end of the cable is acceptable. "So from that standpoint, interoperability is a good thing, whether it's Google TPUs or their own chips, and that's why they are going to all these suppliers here."
The workload Singh named as the reason is inference at hyperscaler volume, which is what forces many chips to be scaled into one addressable unit
The Street Lives With the Deals Because the Accelerator Market Is Still Growing 70%
A host asked where institutional investors have landed on the circular deals — whether the view is that it is what it is, or that it is a problem worth staying away from. Singh answered with the size of the prize rather than the structure of the financing.
His first number was Nvidia's own guidance. "Nvidia has just guided to over $650 billion in annual revenue by next calendar year. So think of the size of this market."
"Just one company, which still has almost 80% share in that accelerator chip space, is guiding to 650 billion."
Adding the other accelerator suppliers gets you to "at least an $800 billion plus market that is growing 70%", he said, and attributed the growth rate to Nvidia
"And it would have grown faster if they had more supply."
He accepted the bear case and said it is outweighed. There could be some pull forward because of the circular financing, he said, because Nvidia is giving customers the money
"But in the end, this is still a very large market with a very high growth rate. And I think everyone wants to cater to that market."
The Deal Front-Runs Google's Plan to Ramp Beyond Broadcom
The host's follow-up was who gets hurt: "Nvidia's investment with MediaTek, who does that hurt?" Singh named a company that is not party to the deal at all.
"Not left out, but Google was planning to ramp up beyond Broadcom with MediaTek."
The move is about capacity, and it is pre-emptive. "And so this is kind of front-running Google to say, hey, Google, we will make sure we lock every capacity that's out there, whether it's with TSMC or with MediaTek or any fab provider."
"And I think this is Nvidia flexing its balance sheet to say, we can lock in any supplier that's out there that could help Google to ramp up capacity."
Singh's bottom line is that the $3.5 billion is not a bet on MediaTek's chips but a claim on MediaTek's capacity and its wiring, bought early enough to sit between Google and the supplier Google was counting on.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Nvidia and MediaTek (The $3.5 billion investment the segment is built on — Singh said what Nvidia is selling is the networking that scales an accelerator into "a much bigger chip kind of entity")
Marvell (The precedent: Nvidia "did that with Marvell first, now with MediaTek")
Google and Broadcom (Who the deal is aimed at — Singh said Google was planning to ramp up beyond Broadcom with MediaTek before Nvidia moved)
TSMC (Named with MediaTek as the fab capacity Nvidia is using its balance sheet to lock in)
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