Nvidia is investing $3.5 billion in Taiwan’s MediaTek as the chip giant deepens a strategy of embracing custom artificial intelligence processors that could otherwise threaten its dominance of the data center market.

The investment will give MediaTek access to Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion technology, enabling chips developed by MediaTek and its customers to connect directly with Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure. The partnership is designed to allow cloud providers and AI companies to deploy their own custom processors alongside Nvidia GPUs within the same data center systems.

The deal comes as some of Nvidia’s largest customers, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, are developing proprietary AI chips to reduce their dependence on Nvidia’s expensive and highly sought-after GPUs. Rather than resisting that shift, Nvidia is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer that connects different types of processors.

The strategy allows customers to develop specialized chips for particular AI workloads while continuing to rely on Nvidia’s networking, software, and rack-scale systems.

“Nvidia is an AI infrastructure company,” Dion Harris, Nvidia’s senior director of HPC and AI hyperscaler infrastructure solutions, told reporters on Monday. “We expanded beyond pure computing chips years ago.”

The partnership therefore matters beyond the size of Nvidia’s investment. It represents an attempt to make Nvidia’s technology the common platform around which competing processors operate.

NVLink Fusion allows non-Nvidia chips to communicate at high speed with Nvidia processors. That could give hyperscalers greater flexibility to introduce custom accelerators without having to abandon Nvidia’s broader data center architecture.

“Basically, every cloud, every model builder is deploying our platform in some shape, form, or fashion,” Harris said. “So by MediaTek being able to offer this extension to its customers, it allows them to standardize on the rack-scale infrastructure across their AI factories.”

For Nvidia, that is an important distinction. The company may lose some of the computing workload to custom ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits, but it can still capture value from the surrounding infrastructure.

The approach also helps explain Nvidia’s expanding investment activity across the AI ecosystem. The company has increasingly backed businesses that could become customers, partners or complementary suppliers within its platform, creating a model in which Nvidia’s capital helps expand demand for the infrastructure it sells.

The MediaTek investment comes shortly after Nvidia announced a similar expansion of its relationship with Amazon Web Services. AWS plans to deploy an additional 2 million Nvidia GPUs and integrate NVLink Fusion into its infrastructure, although that agreement does not include a direct Nvidia investment in AWS.

MediaTek brings a different advantage to the relationship. The Taiwanese company has extensive experience designing specialized chips for smartphones, automobiles, wireless communications and consumer electronics, and has been expanding into custom data center silicon.

MediaTek said in June that it expects its custom data center ASIC business to generate $2 billion in revenue in 2026. Nvidia’s technology could help the company compete for a larger share of the rapidly expanding market for custom AI accelerators, particularly as hyperscalers seek processors tailored to their own workloads.

The opportunity is growing because AI companies increasingly need different types of computing for training, inference, and specialized applications. Instead of relying entirely on a single general-purpose accelerator, large technology companies can combine GPUs with custom silicon designed for specific workloads.

That creates a potential opening for MediaTek while also giving Nvidia a way to remain central to systems in which its own chips are no longer the only processors.

“This is really about opening up this ecosystem to the entire MediaTek customer base,” Harris said.

The partnership extends beyond data centers. Nvidia and MediaTek will continue working together on DGX Spark, Nvidia’s developer-focused desktop AI computer, as well as the RTX Spark initiative aimed at consumer AI PCs.

The companies are also collaborating on software-defined vehicles and automotive AI. MediaTek’s automotive platforms use Nvidia RTX graphics technology for intelligent vehicle cockpits and work alongside Nvidia’s Drive AGX platform for autonomous-driving workloads.

The broader strategy reflects Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s effort to turn the company from a supplier of high-performance GPUs into a much broader computing platform spanning data centers, PCs and vehicles.

“AI is transforming every computing platform, from the world’s largest AI factories to the PC and the car,” Huang said. “Together, we’re building platforms that bring NVIDIA accelerated computing to new markets and give customers the freedom to create differentiated AI systems at enormous scale.”

The challenge for Nvidia is that the same strategy designed to preserve its dominance could also accelerate the development of alternatives to its GPUs. If custom silicon becomes more capable and widely adopted, Nvidia will need to ensure that its networking, software and rack-scale architecture remain indispensable even when customers use processors supplied by competitors.

Industry analysts see the MediaTek deal as an indication that Nvidia is betting that controlling the architecture around AI computing could ultimately prove as important as controlling the processors themselves.

Croatia has become one of the most recognizable sailing destinations in the Mediterranean, and it is easy to understand why. The country combines historic coastal towns, hundreds of islands, sheltered bays, clear Adriatic water, and sailing routes that can be adapted to both relaxed holidays and more ambitious trips.

Unlike destinations where long passages separate the main points of interest, many Croatian sailing areas allow travelers to visit a new island, town, or anchorage every day without spending the entire trip underway.

For anyone who wants to combine sailing with swimming, food, history, and island hopping, Croatia offers an unusually complete experience.

Explore the Croatian Coast One Island at a Time

One of the biggest attractions of sailing in Croatia is the sheer variety of places that can be included in a single itinerary.

A week on the water might involve visiting a lively harbor town, anchoring beside a quiet island, swimming in a secluded bay, and spending the evening at a waterfront restaurant.

The central Dalmatian coast is particularly well suited to this style of travel. Popular starting points such as Split and Trogir provide access to islands including Bra?, Hvar, Šolta, and Vis.

Travelers looking for their own Croatia yacht charter can choose from sailing yachts, catamarans, motor yachts, and crewed options departing from bases along much of the Adriatic coast.

Start Your Journey From Split

Split is one of Croatia’s most popular gateways to the Adriatic islands.

The city combines a large sailing infrastructure with a historic center, restaurants, beaches, and convenient access to central Dalmatia.

From here, sailors can quickly reach several very different destinations.

Bra? is known for its beaches and traditional coastal towns, while Hvar combines historic architecture, restaurants, nightlife, and attractive bays. Vis, located farther offshore, offers a quieter atmosphere and a coastline filled with small anchorages and fishing villages.

This makes Split particularly useful for travelers who want plenty of variety without constantly covering long distances.

Discover Hvar Beyond the Famous Town

Hvar is one of the best-known islands in Croatia, but arriving by yacht reveals much more than the famous harbor.

The island has numerous bays and small coastal settlements where sailors can stop for swimming or spend the night away from the busiest parts of town.

Nearby, the Pakleni Islands create another natural playground for yachts. Their small bays and surrounding waters make them popular for swimming, relaxing, and short sailing trips from Hvar.

This ability to combine an energetic town with quieter anchorages nearby is typical of sailing in Croatia.

Experience the Wild Side of the Kornati Islands

Farther north, the Kornati archipelago offers a very different landscape.

Instead of busy resort towns, sailors encounter rugged islands, rocky shores, clear water, and numerous natural anchorages.

The area is particularly attractive to travelers who want their sailing holiday to focus more on nature and time on the water.

Routes through the Kornati region often begin near Zadar, Sukošan, or Biograd, allowing sailors to combine the islands with other destinations along the northern Dalmatian coast.

The scenery here feels dramatically different from places such as Hvar or Dubrovnik, which is another reason Croatia works so well for repeat sailing trips.

Visit Historic Towns Directly From the Water

Sailing in Croatia is not only about beaches and islands.

The Adriatic coast is filled with historic towns where yachts can stop for an afternoon or overnight stay.

Split, Trogir, Šibenik, Kor?ula, and Dubrovnik all allow travelers to combine time at sea with architecture, local food, and centuries of history.

Arriving from the water adds another dimension to the experience.

Instead of checking into a hotel and using the same location as a base every day, the yacht becomes a floating home that moves with you along the coast.

One evening might be spent in a quiet anchorage, while the next could involve dinner inside an old town only a few minutes’ walk from the marina.

Croatia Works Well for Island Hopping

Island hopping is where the Croatian coast really stands out.

Many popular sailing areas contain several interesting destinations within relatively compact regions. That means a route can include regular stops without requiring extremely long passages every day.

For first-time sailing travelers, this can make the experience feel more like a road trip on the water.

You are constantly moving, but the journey between destinations is part of the holiday rather than simply a way to get from one attraction to another.

There is also plenty of flexibility. A route can focus on busy destinations and restaurants, quiet anchorages and swimming, or a combination of both.

Sailing Experience Is Not Essential

Travelers sometimes assume that renting a yacht requires years of sailing experience.

That is not necessarily the case.

Qualified sailors can charter a bareboat and manage the yacht themselves, while those without the required experience can book a yacht with a professional skipper.

There are also fully crewed options for travelers who want more onboard service.

This opens sailing holidays to families, couples, and groups of friends who simply want to experience Croatia from the water without learning how to operate a yacht first.

Sailboat or Catamaran?

Both sailing yachts and catamarans are common choices for Croatian itineraries.

A monohull sailing yacht is usually the traditional option and can be a good fit for travelers who want sailing itself to be a major part of the experience.

Catamarans provide additional living space and a wide deck area, which makes them particularly attractive to larger groups and families. Their shallow draft can also be useful when exploring bays and coastal areas.

The best choice depends on the group size, route, budget, and preferred level of comfort rather than there being one ideal yacht for every Croatian sailing holiday.

When to Sail in Croatia

The main sailing season runs through the warmer part of the year, with July and August generally attracting the largest number of visitors.

However, the peak of summer is not the only time worth considering.

Late spring and early autumn can be attractive alternatives for travelers who prefer a quieter atmosphere. June and September in particular are popular choices for combining warm Mediterranean conditions with fewer peak-season crowds.

The best period ultimately depends on whether the priority is hot summer weather, nightlife, quieter marinas, or sailing conditions.

A Different Way to Experience Croatia

Croatia can easily be explored by car, ferry, or traditional beach holiday, but sailing connects its coastline in a way that land-based travel cannot.

Instead of choosing between Hvar, Bra?, Vis, the Kornati Islands, or one of the country’s historic coastal towns, a yacht makes it possible to combine several of them within the same journey.

You can swim before breakfast, sail to another island during the day, walk through an old town in the evening, and wake up somewhere completely different the following morning.

That freedom is what makes Croatia such a natural destination for a sailing holiday — and why many travelers who discover the Adriatic from the water eventually return to explore another part of the coast.

Huawei Technologies reported a 36% decline in first-half net profit on Monday, as sharply higher production costs and a major increase in research and development spending outweighed stronger revenue, highlighting the growing financial burden of the Chinese technology giant’s push to build a self-reliant AI and semiconductor ecosystem.

The Shenzhen-based company said net profit for the six months ended June fell to 23.81 billion yuan ($3.54 billion), compared with a 32% decline in the same period last year. Revenue, however, rose 9.6% to 467.82 billion yuan as Huawei continued to rebuild its businesses after years of U.S. sanctions and export restrictions.

The results show that Huawei is generating substantial top-line growth while sacrificing a larger portion of its revenue to technology development and production. Its costs are rising faster than sales, putting pressure on margins at a time when the company is committing heavily to some of the most capital-intensive areas of the technology industry.

Research and development spending jumped 25.2% to 121.38 billion yuan in the first half, equivalent to 25.9% of revenue. The spending reflects Huawei’s efforts to advance artificial intelligence, communications technology, computing, smart devices and intelligent automotive systems.

The company’s cost of products increased 12.4%, outpacing its 9.6% revenue growth, while administrative expenses also climbed significantly.

Huawei said the first-half performance was in line with its internal expectations, but left its full-year outlook under review because of external uncertainties and rising input costs.

The pressure on profitability comes as Huawei attempts to turn the restrictions imposed by Washington into an incentive to develop domestic alternatives. U.S. export controls have limited the company’s access to advanced semiconductors and other technologies, while earlier sanctions contributed to a 29% decline in Huawei’s annual revenue in 2021.

Since then, Huawei has poured resources into developing its own chip, software and AI computing capabilities, while expanding into areas including electric vehicles, cloud computing and consumer electronics. The strategy has helped restore revenue. Huawei’s 2025 revenue increased 2.2% to 880.9 billion yuan, its second-highest annual level, behind the 891 billion yuan recorded in 2020.

The company has continued expanding its AI-related telecoms products and computing hardware this year, while developing smart-driving technology and launching new smartphones, tablets and wearable devices in China and overseas.

Huawei did not provide a breakdown of first-half revenue by business. It said, however, that all of its business divisions recorded year-on-year revenue growth.

The cost of that expansion is becoming increasingly visible in Huawei’s cash position and inventories. Cash used in day-to-day operations reached 39.88 billion yuan in the first half, compared with cash generation of 31.18 billion yuan a year earlier.

Spending on goods and services increased substantially faster than cash received from customers, while inventories jumped 42% from the end of 2025. The build-up could indicate that Huawei is preparing for stronger demand, but it also ties up cash and increases the financial risk of holding components and finished products in a volatile technology market.

Huawei attributed part of the profitability pressure to higher R&D spending and changes in its business mix.

Rising memory prices are also affecting its consumer electronics operations, particularly smartphones. That creates an additional challenge for Huawei because the company is simultaneously trying to expand its hardware presence and absorb higher component costs without passing the full increase on to customers.

The financial pressure illustrates a broader challenge facing Chinese technology companies operating under U.S. restrictions. Building domestic substitutes for advanced foreign technology requires sustained investment, but those investments can take years to generate returns and may initially depress profitability.

Huawei is seeking to strengthen its position across the computing stack, from chips and processors to networking equipment and software, at a time when China is pushing to reduce its dependence on U.S.-controlled technology. These make the stakes high.

While the strategy could give Huawei greater control over its supply chain over the longer term, the first-half figures show that technological self-reliance comes with substantial near-term costs.

The company is also facing continuing legal and geopolitical risks in the United States. Its filing disclosed a U.S. court date next week in a case involving allegations of bank fraud and sanctions violations. A separate case concerning alleged theft of T-Mobile trade secrets is scheduled for trial in October next year.

Huawei has denied wrongdoing in the various U.S. cases.

The combination of rising revenue and falling profit leaves Huawei at an important point in its post-sanctions recovery. The company is expanding across AI, chips, telecommunications, consumer devices and automotive technology, but translating that expansion into sustainable profit growth will depend on its ability to eventually offset higher investment and input costs by scale.