The expansion will be executed in phases, leveraging a disciplined, ROI-driven strategy to balance rapid scalability with prudent capital allocation

HSINCHU, Taiwan & SINGAPORE: United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a phased expansion plan to meet growing customer demand. The company will immediately expand cleanroom capacity in Singapore and simultaneously begin construction of a new fab building shell at its flagship Tainan campus in Taiwan.

This dual-track approach is designed to meet near-term customer demand while establishing the structural footprint required to capture future high-growth AI and edge-computing applications. The strategy dramatically reduces future capacity lead times while keeping near-term capital expenditure tightly aligned with secured, long-term customer commitments.

Stan Hung, Chairman of UMC, said: “The rise of generative AI has fundamentally shifted the technology landscape, accelerating demand for technologies enabling higher performance, higher bandwidth, and greater system integration. Today’s announcement is to ensure UMC is positioned to meet this demand through a phased strategy that balances speed, flexibility, and capital discipline.”

Chairman Hung added: “In Singapore, we will invest in the cleanroom installation of the Phase 4 (P4) facility and tool purchases to expand our silicon photonics capacity. With the building shell already built, we can expand cleanroom capacity efficiently as customer demand ramps. In Taiwan, we will construct a new fab building which will house future Phase 7 (P7) and Phase 8 (P8) facilities, creating a robust foundation for UMC to scale new technologies alongside customers’ long-term product roadmaps. This phased strategy allows UMC to maintain exceptional capital discipline, minimizing upfront depreciation while securing our position at the forefront of the AI-driven future.”

The new Tainan fab will reinforce Taiwan as UMC’s global hub for world-class manufacturing and cutting-edge R&D, while expanding UMC’s advanced packaging footprint. The P4 expansion will strengthen Singapore as UMC’s largest site outside of Taiwan, supporting geographic diversification for supply chain resilience, as well as advanced technology development, including silicon photonics. These complementary investments will enhance the company’s ability to provide scalable manufacturing of key technologies supporting next-generation cloud and edge AI applications.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high-quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI, BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in and 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has a total of 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of more than 400,000 wafers per month (12-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with a worldwide total of 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: http://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

Fonte: Business Wire