UNITED MICROELECTRONICS CORP

Overview

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) is a Taiwan-based semiconductor foundry that manufactures wafers for customers and provides mask-preparation and outsourced assembly and testing services. Its business centers on logic and specialty semiconductor manufacturing.[1][2] Founded in May 1980 as Taiwan’s first semiconductor company, UMC is headquartered in Taiwan and operates fabs in Taiwan, Singapore, China and Japan.[3]+2

UMC reported 2025 operating revenue of NT$237.6 billion (US$7.57 billion). Its official overview describes a workforce of about 20,000 and 12 production fabs; the company also lists offices across Asia, the United States and Europe.[6][2] UMC describes its IC solutions as supporting “a smarter, more connected, and greener future.” [7] [1]+6

Products & services

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) manufactures customer-designed integrated circuits and provides foundry services rather than marketing a broad portfolio of branded chips. Its process technologies span 0.25µm to 14nm and include logic and mixed-signal platforms such as 28nm Poly-SiON and high-k/metal-gate, 28HPC/28HPC+, 22nm ultra-low-power and ultra-low-leakage, and 14nm FinFET. UMC describes its 14nm process as offering 55% higher speed, twice the gate density and about 50% lower power than 28nm.[1]+2

Specialty offerings include embedded memory at 55/40/28/22nm for microcontrollers and automotive uses; 28nm non-volatile memory; 40/22nm RRAM; and MRAM. Other platforms include embedded high-voltage processes for display-driver ICs, BSI-CSI for image sensors, BCD for power-management circuits, and 110/90/55/40nm RF-SOI. UMC reports that its 14eHV process reduces power by more than 40% versus 28eHV. Its silicon-photonics process entered trial runs in the second half of 2025, incorporating SOI, immersion lithography, Ge/SiGe epitaxy and optical components including micro-ring modulators and GeSi electro-absorption modulators.[10][11]

Services include wafer fabrication, mask preparation coordination, design-for-manufacturability assistance, access to EDA tools and design libraries, embedded-memory macros, analog/mixed-signal IP, and Silicon Shuttle shared test-wafer verification. UMC also offers wafer probing and turnkey subcontracted assembly and test.[1]+3 In Q4 2025, 22nm and 28nm processes together accounted for 36% of revenue; 22nm alone exceeded 13%.[15] [1]+8

Geographic presence

UMC’s manufacturing footprint spans Taiwan, China, Singapore, and Japan. Its listed facilities include sites in Hsinchu and Tainan in Taiwan, Suzhou and Xiamen in China, Singapore, and Mie in Japan; it also lists administration offices in Hsinchu and Taipei and an R&D building in Tainan.[4][16]

UMC reports offices in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, and approximately 20,000 employees worldwide; it does not provide an employee breakdown by geography.[17] The FY2025 report identifies one reportable segment, wafer fabrication, and does not provide revenue by country or region.[18] [4]+4

Business segments

United Microelectronics Corporation reports one operating and reportable segment: wafer fabrication. The segment manufactures chips to customers’ design specifications using UMC’s proprietary processes and techniques; it therefore represents approximately 100% of the company’s reported segment scope, with no separate business-segment revenue lines disclosed.[18][19]

UMC also reports revenue by process technology, but these are technology categories rather than reportable business segments. In Q2 2026, 22/28nm processes accounted for 37% of revenue, including 22nm at 17.5%.[20] [18]+2

Company history

United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) was established in Hsinchu on May 22, 1980, as Taiwan’s first semiconductor company, spun out of the Industrial Technology Research Institute.[21] It became the first integrated-circuit company listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1985.[22]

In 1995, UMC shifted from integrated device manufacturing toward the pure-play foundry model, and Fab 8A began volume production.[23] In 1999 it established Fab 12A, Taiwan’s first 300mm wafer fab, which began volume production in 2002.[24][25] In January 2000, UMC consolidated UMC, USC, UTEK, USIC and UICC into one corporation.[26] In 2002, John Hsuan became CEO, succeeding Robert Tsao, who remained chairman.[27]

UMC recorded 28nm pilot production in 2010 and announced mass production of customer chips using its 14nm process in 2017.[28][29] In 2019, it acquired the remaining 84.1% stake in Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor, renaming the company United Semiconductor Japan.[30] UMC announced a joint 12nm process-development effort with Intel in 2024, and unveiled a new Singapore fab in 2025, with first-phase volume production planned for 2026.[31][32] [25]+11

Sources

• UNITED MICROELECTRONICS CORP — Full financial report (2025 Y)
  15 citations

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• www.umc.com[2]
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• www.umc.com[7]
• www.sec.gov[15]
• www.umc.com[17]
• www.umc.com[20]
• www.umc.com[21]
• www.umc.com[22]
• www.umc.com[23]
• www.umc.com[24]
• www.umc.com[26]
• www.umc.com[27]
• www.umc.com[28]
• www.umc.com[29]
• www.umc.com[30]
• www.umc.com[31]
• www.umc.com[32]