TAIPEI, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The chief executive of

Taiwan's top chip design company MediaTek ( MDTTF ) said on

Friday that the company has been running simulations for

possible U.S. tariffs on the island, but thinks for this year it

would be "manageable".

Tech firms in Taiwan, home to the world's largest contract

chipmaker TSMC, face the possibility U.S. President

Donald Trump will follow through on threats to put tariffs on

imported chips, having complained on the campaign trail about

Taiwan having stolen American semiconductor business.

Trump said last week he plans to impose tariffs on imported

chips, along with pharmaceuticals and steel, in an effort to get

the producers to make them in the United States. He has not

given a timeframe.

Asked on a quarterly earnings conference call about the

impact on the company, whose partners and clients include

artificial intelligence (AI) darling Nvidia ( NVDA ), from any

future U.S. tariffs on Taiwan, MediaTek's ( MDTTF ) CEO Rick Tsai said the

issue was "very unpredictable".

"Of course we're not just sitting here doing nothing. We are

making our own assumptions, doing some simulations," he said,

without giving details.

For this year, Tsai said the impact would be "manageable".

"You can define manageable by many different ways, but from

my end I think it's manageable for us for 2025," he added.

"There are so many variables, so it's very difficult to give an

accurate estimate now. It's very complex."

The tech industry also faces unpredictability from Chinese

startup's DeepSeek AI.

Tech stocks worldwide plunged on Jan. 27 after the launch of

DeepSeek AI - apparently costing a fraction of rival models and

requiring less sophisticated chips - raised questions over the

West's huge investments in chipmakers and data centres.

But Tsai said he remained very positive on the AI market.

"With the recent DeepSeek phenomenon we actually are getting

more optimistic," he said. "The trend is democratising AI. It

will spread more for average users."

MediaTek's ( MDTTF ) shares have risen 7.8% so far this year,

outperforming the broader market's 1.9% gain. The

company's shares closed flat on Friday.