With its business scope expanding on the acquisition of several fellow Taiwan-based IC companies, MediaTek has significantly scaled up its orders to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for 2016, according to industry sources.

Meanwhile, TSMC is expected to see orders placed by its other major clients decrease or grow at a slower-than-expected pace in 2016. A weak PC market is affecting negatively orders from customers such as Nvidia and AMD, while Qualcomm seems to have departed from TSMC's top client list, the sources said.

While contracting TSMC's rival Samsung to fabricate its 14nm chips, Qualcomm is also giving more 28nm orders to United Microelectronics (UMC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the sources said.

TSMC is also aware that Avago's acquisition of Broadcom could bring uncertainty to its orders from the combined entity, the sources indicated.

Orders from Apple and its chip providers will continue to play a key driver of TSMC's growth in 2016, the sources believe.

MediaTek previously announced plans to acquire an up to 100% stake in analog IC supplier RichtekTechnology, less than one month after announcing subsidiary MStar Semiconductor would take over LCD driver IC firm ILI Technology (Ilitek). Both deals are expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

The ever-expanding MediaTek Group now has Ralink Technology specialize in wireless connectivity chips, MStar Semiconductor for display controller chips, Alpha Imaging Technology for UAC chips, Andes Technology for MCUs, Goodix for touchscreen controller ICs, and mCube for MEMS sensors.