UMC Q1 2026 Earnings Call - 22 nm Revenue Hits Record High Amid Pricing Reset and Margin Pressure

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Welcome everyone to UMC’s 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please follow the instructions given at the time if you would like to ask the question. For your information, this conference call is now being broadcasted live over the internet. Webcast replay will be available within two hours after the conference has finished. Please visit our website, www.umc.com, under the Investor Relations, Investors Events section. Now I would like to introduce Mr. David Wong, Investor Relations Manager of UMC. Mr. Wong, please begin.

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Thank you. Welcome to UMC’s conference call for the first quarter of 2026. I’m joined by Mr. Chitung Liu, CFO of UMC, and Mr. Michael Lin, Senior Director of Finance. In a moment, we will hear our CFO present the first quarter financial results, followed by our key message to address UMC’s focus in second quarter 2026 guidance. Once our CFO complete the remarks, there will be a Q&A session. UMC’s quarterly financial reports are available at our website, www.umc.com, under the Investors Financials section. During this conference, we may make forward-looking statements based on management’s current expectations and beliefs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the risks that may be beyond the company’s control.

For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our recent and subsequent filings with the SEC and the ROC securities authorities. During this conference, you may view our financial presentation material, which is being broadcasted live through the internet. I would now like to introduce UMC CFO, Mr. Chitung Liu, to discuss UMC’s first quarter 2026 financial results.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Thank you, David. I’d like to go through the first quarter 2026 investor conference presentation material, which can be downloaded or viewed in real time from our website. Starting on page four, the first quarter of 2026, consolidated revenue was TWD 61.04 billion, with gross margin at 29.2%. Net income attributable to the stockholders of the parent was TWD 16.17 billion, and the earnings per ordinary share were TWD 1.29, which show pretty good growth compared to both last quarter as well as the same quarter of last year. On page five, first starting from the sequential comparison. Revenue was basically flat or down 1.2% sequentially to TWD 61.4 billion.

Gross margin at 29.2%, slightly declined from the previous quarter of 30.7%. Net income attributable to shareholder of the parent though, has increased 50% sequentially to TWD 16.17 billion, partially due to the strength of the stock market performance and the non-operating income, grow 50% to TWD 5.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026. EPS as a result reached TWD 1.29, EPS per ADS is TWD 0.204 in the first quarter of 2026. On page six, year-over-year comparison. Revenue grow by 5.5% year-over-year, mainly due to shipment increase.

In gross margin also show 2.5 percentage point improvement to 29.2%, to TWD 17.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026. EPS also show nearly more than 100% growth in the net income compared to TWD 7.7 billion in the first quarter of last year. On page seven, balance sheet highlights. Total equity reach TWD 406 billion, and cash on hand still over TWD 100 billion at the end of first quarter of 2026. On page eight, our ASP declined slightly in the first quarter of 2026, mainly due to a better-than-expected 8 in wafer shipment, which bring down the blended ASP. On page nine, our revenue breakdown by different geography.

The changes are very minor. We see some have declined in Europe region from 11% in the previous quarter to 9% in this quarter. The other region pretty stay relatively similar compared to the Q4 2025. On page 10, IDM show a bigger decline from 20% in the previous quarter to now 14% of the total revenue. On page 11, Communication also declined 3% quarter-over-quarter to 39%, when consumer increased by 4% to 32% in first Q 2026. For technology breakdown, our revenue below 40 nm still remain over 50% of the total shipment. 28 nm, 22 nm is around 34%, slightly declined from the previous quarter.

On page 13, there’s some annual maintenance schedule or maintenance in the first quarter of 2026, resulting slight decline in available capacity in the first quarter of 2026. We will see the total available capacity to go back to the previous level in the second quarter of 2026. On page 14 is our overall budget annual CapEx, which for the time being, still stay around $1.5 billion. The above is a summary of UMC’s results for first quarter of 2026. Next, I would like to go to share our key messages. In the first quarter, our wafer shipment increased 2.7% sequentially on a relatively strong growth in the consumer segment, lifting overall utilization rate to 79%, which is a continued improvement.

Despite decline in blended ASP during the quarter, which I explained earlier, this is partially reflected higher 8 in wafer shipment. Gross margin held firm at 29.2%. Demand for our 22 nm logic and specialty process continued to gain momentum, with 22 nm revenue now reach another record high and accounting for about 14% of total first quarter revenue. At the end of this year, over 50 customers will have complete tape-out on our 22 nm platform for a very diverse range of applications, including display driver IC, network chips, and microcontrollers. We continue to invest in the next generation technology beyond 22 nm. Our 12 nm collaboration with our partner will provide customers with technology continuity as well as a U.S.-based manufacturing option.

UMC also recently announced important development in the emerging business, including a strategic partnership to deploy thin-film lithium niobate TFLN photonics for AI infrastructures. Going to second quarter, we expect strong wafer shipment growth across both 8 in and 12 in portfolios, supported by a strong rebound in the communication segment, as well as healthy demand across computer, consumer, and industrial markets. When the current memory supply shortage and ongoing conflict in the Middle East are creating certain headwinds and market volatilities, UMC continue to foresee resilient market demand. UMC will continue to monitor industry and macroeconomic development closely when prudently managing our business to cope with market dynamic amid evolving semiconductor landscape change. Let’s move on to second quarter 2026 guidance. Our wafer shipment will increase by high single digits, and ASP in U.S. dollar terms will increase by low single digit.

Gross margin will be approximately 30%, and capacity utilization rate will be in the low 80% range. Our 2026 cash base CapEx, as I mentioned earlier, so far will maintain around TWD 1.5 billion budget. That concludes my comments, and thank you all for your attention. Now we are ready for questions.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Yes, thank you, Mr. Liu. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question for any of today’s speakers, please press star one on your telephone keypad and you will enter the queue. After you are announced, please ask your question. If you find that your question has been answered before it is your turn to speak, then please press star two to cancel the question. Thank you. Now please press star one on your keypad if you would like to ask a question. Thank you. Our first question will be coming from Gokul Hariharan of JPMorgan. Go ahead, please.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Yeah. Hi, Chitung. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, on the pricing environment, I think last time, you guys have talked about pricing environment being more favorable. Any more improvement that you’re seeing on the pricing front right now, in terms of your discussions with customers? Is it mainly to reflect the higher operating costs, or are you able to kind of recognize some price increases even beyond the operating cost improvement? When I look at Q2 low single-digit QoQ price increase, is that mainly a blended price increase because 12 in is growing faster or is there a like prie increase included here as well?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Yes. We recently sent out a letter to our customers, talking about the price increase to happen in the second half of 2026. The blended ASP in second quarter increase is, yes, mainly from the mix improvement. I would say 22 nm and 28 nm will be the main help for the blended ASP increase in second quarter. When the first half of 2026 were underway, we are seeing resilient demand across a broad range of fabrication, including communication, industrial and consumer, and even the AI-related segment for us. This momentum is contributing to a sustained and increasing tight capacity environment across UMC’s portfolio. To support such demand, UMC continues to enhance manufacturing efficiency and invest in technology and capacity to ensure reliable, high quality wafer supply.

This ongoing investment, together with increasing key cost drivers, including raw materials, energy and logistics, are essential to sustain our long-term operational excellence and service commitment. In light of these factors, we will implement a wafer price adjustment in the second half of 2026, which will set up a more favorable position for the upcoming 2027. The pricing reflects both the evolving supply and demand environment and the continuing investment required to support our customers’ growth. Pricing adjustment will based on the factor, including UMC’s product mix, strategy, capacity agreement, and also the long-term partnership. This pricing adjustment will be implemented. Hopefully, we will do our best in a very disciplined and sustainable manner to ensure our operational health and continuing to support our customer growth and long-term success.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Thanks, Chitung. Just to follow up on that, I think, I think if I remember right, I think your letter was like 8%-10% for 8 in and 12 in. Are we seeing further potential for increasing price, like? What is the reception you’re hearing from the customers that have that you’ve been in consultation with? I think, is there broad acceptance of this pricing freeze or you see some degree of pushback given some of the customers, the demand seems to be still pretty sluggish.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Yeah. One thing we don’t want to do, or we never really did, is being opportunist to take advantage of customers. That’s something we will never do. Our pricing strategy has always been anchored in the value where we deliver our differentiated technology, diversified manufacturing footprint, and hopefully, again, work at operational excellence. These trends continue to enhance our customers’ product competitiveness and strengthen their supply chain resilience. As semi supply chain evolves, we are seeing market recognition on UMC value, and this is driving structurally higher and more sustainable demand. We remain committed to investing in this core strength to reinforce a virtuous cycle of value creation. In parallel, we continue to enhance ASP through structure product mix optimization.

This includes strong momentum in our 22 nm platform and reduction in commoditized segment exposures, and thereby strengthening UMC’s long-term ASP profile. I’m pretty sure we didn’t really mention anything numerical in our letter to customers. It will be based upon different segments, different technology, and our long-term partnership.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. My second question on gross margin. We had some improvement in utilization from like mid-70%s to low 80%s in Q2 based on your guidance. Gross margin is still roughly hanging around 30% now. With this price increase, like, how should we think about gross margins? Are we likely to get back to like high 30% or 40% kind of levels that we were in back in the 2021, 2022 kind of time frame? That might require a much bigger improvement in utilization.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Unfortunately, we’re still in the peak of our depreciation increase cycle. I think in the previous quarter we mentioned our depreciation curve will only peak out starting from next year. We’re still seeing quarter-after-quarter depreciation expenses. If you ask me about EBITDA margin, I think I will be more comfortable talking about a better upside. If you talk about gross margin or operating margin, we still under a lot of pressures from depreciation expenses increase. Not to mention the recent geopolitical tension lead to raw material costs and the energy costs and logistic costs to increase. Our utilization rate will be in the low 80% range in Q2.

However, the margin uplift from higher shipments will be largely offset by the higher depreciation and higher utility costs, like I mentioned. For the remainder of 2026, the 12 in in Singapore ramp up will start in meaningful terms in the second half of 2026, which will continue to carry higher depreciation expenses over the next several quarters. Of course, from UMC’s side, we will continue to proactively deploy cost reduction efforts, including multi-sourcing, streamlining our operations, managing supply chain pricing and drive automation transformation. All these measures will help UMC to partially offset the cost headwinds and maintain our or hopefully enhance our EBITDA margin.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Yeah. Thanks, Chitung. Thank you very much.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Thank you.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Next one, Charlie Chan, Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, please.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thanks for taking my question, thanks, Chitung. Also, congratulations for a very strong guidance and outlook. I do have some questions about the details of it, especially, you comment about the communication segment is very strong. May I know, is that coming from AI-related networking or also the smartphone business you’re also seeing, so-called a rebound? Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: First of all, communication was weaker in third quarter, so there will be a meaningful rebound in second quarter. For UMC will be driven by DDI, networking, FPGA and ISP. Those segments will show stronger growth in the communication segment for the second quarter.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Okay. If I may, I think the company also offering lots of new technology, no matter silicon photonics, foundry service, or your advanced packaging, right? Can management talk about your future plan for those advanced packaging capacity expansion and also potential revenue contribution in the coming two years?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: These are two questions. One is on packaging, one is on silicon photonics. Maybe David can help to answer the question.

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Yeah, sure. As far as advanced packaging, as you’re aware, we’re seeing more engagements pick up on our advanced packaging solutions. As you know, we’re working with more than 10 customers on advanced packaging. Currently, we expect more than 35 new tape outs in 2026. We foresee that revenue for advanced packaging next year will be significantly higher. As of now, we’re in production with our for an bridge die solution and discrete DTC, Deep Trench Capacitor, with more products that’ll ramp up shortly.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: May I know for the bridge die or DTC, are those working with other foundry partners? Is that part of the TSMC supply chain or TSMC supply chain?

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Yeah. We don’t really comment on our partnership. As you know, as we talked about last quarter, these things are picking up a little bit of steam.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Okay. Okay. On top of that, do you need to further expand your so-called interposer capacity for that bridge die demand? Or, the current capacity is sufficient for that bridge die? I’m assuming that, taking the interposers more wafer capacity, whereas the bridge die, though more advanced, right? It doesn’t really come much wafer capacity.

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Yeah. As far as capacity planning for all of our new businesses, that will be aligned with our customers as well as market demand. Our ramp-up schedule will be aligned with the market outlook.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Okay. Okay. Thanks, David. Thanks, Chitung.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We’re moving on to silicon photonics as well.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Oh, sure. Yes, please.

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: For silicon photonics, we’re now working with industry-leading customers that will help us ramp on silicon photonics. Additionally, preliminary data shows that our silicon photonics performance is on par or better than our peers. This is a result of our manufacturing excellence and also the fact that we use fully automated benches equipment versus peers. In addition, we’re on track to deliver our PDK 1.0 in 2027, which is based on the IMEC license.

We are also enabling integration for our customer by evaluating hybrid bonding, TSV, and Chiplet integration.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Okay. Got it. Thanks. I’ll be back to the queue. Thanks.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Sure.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Next question, Sunny Lin, UBS. Go ahead, please.

Sunny Lin, Analyst, UBS: Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions, and congrats on the improving outlook. My first question is to follow up on what you guided earlier this year. Three months ago, you did guide better growth from second half of this year, driven by new products and market share expansion. Now, Q2 is indeed pretty solid. I wonder, how should you think about going to second half? Do you still hold the view that for this year, you should see even stronger growth going to second half the year?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We remain optimistic about our overall 2026 business outlook. In the first half, we are seeing resilient demand across a broad range of applications, such as communication, industrial, consumer, and AI-related sectors. This momentum, we think, is continuing to sustain an increasingly tight capacity environment across UMC’s portfolio. We expect this momentum to continue into second half, especially our 22 nm logic embedded high-v platform, where we expect to grow in the high-teen percentage range for those segments, second half compared to first half. There’s also another driver coming from our image recovery, which is progressing to deliver good growth year-over-year because of somewhat low base last year. The stronger second half outlook support our expectation of a full year performance improvement.

I think we still stick to UMC’s going to outperform the growth of our addressable market in 2026. We’re definitely, from UMC side, we’re committed to deliver a better performance than exist last year’s results. Hopefully this will be a turning point for UMC to broaden our addressable market. This ASP uplift we talk about in the second half, together with our strategic investment for the upcoming 12 nm silicon photonic and advanced packaging are all going to support UMC’s sustainable long-term growth.

Sunny Lin, Analyst, UBS: Thank you very much, Chitung. May I follow up on full year outlook? I think several foundries have reported better outlook for 2026. One is for addressable market, do you see some upside for low single digit growth?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: I think the UMC addressable market show some incremental improvement, but not really significantly different. Overall market, I think, is definitely better if you include all the AI boom. Overall, the semiconductor industry is projected now grow by mid-teen in 2026. UMC’s addressable market may be slightly better, but still grow by the low single digit percentage, which is again, only slightly better than our last quarter’s forecast.

Sunny Lin, Analyst, UBS: No problem. Thank you. My second question is if we look at high level, there are lots of concerns around disconnect between consumer end market and mature foundry improvement. Maybe if you could help us understand why for this year, although smartphone and PC end market are showing some weakness, broader mature foundry space, including UMC, get to see improving demand throughout the year, it seems. For UMC, how should we think about your server exposure? What would be the key products that you get to serve from server? From here, would you be able to benefit from server opportunity as well?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Our technology predominantly support customer addressing high-end market segment. The low-end demand tend to be more resilient. Even with recent memory tightness, supply is typically prioritized for those high-end, high-value devices. As a matter of fact, our value-added technology, including 28 nm, 22 nm, high-voltage and RFSOI, will help customer gain more shares in the high-end smartphone segment in 2026. This will also help UMC navigate the headwinds from the communication slash mobile segment. When we remain attentive to the potential impacts from either memory tightness, market tightness or Our current assessment is that any potential headwinds are manageable. We will continue to monitor the situation closely with our customers. The other factor is really UMC has been defocused on the commoditized segment.

Any so-called generic commodity type of market segment, UMC will certainly try to scale down our exposures. That will help our overall position as a foundry. As for server, we don’t really have a breakdown by the server end market, which we can maybe try to do that. This is maybe two layers, three layers away from our market segment.

Sunny Lin, Analyst, UBS: No problem. Thank you very much.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Next question, [Hause Lu], Bank of America, go ahead, please.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley1: Yes, thanks, Chitung and David. Congrats on the very good result and the guidance. I guess two questions from me, starting from utilization. You reported in the first quarter 79% and will be up to 80% ± range in second quarter. Would you be able to provide some of the breakdown between 8 in versus 12 in nodes? Also your expectation for second half this year, judging from your guidance just now that you think second half will be better than first half. Also separately, between respectively for 8 in and also 12 in into second half. Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: It’s, it’s not around 80%, it’s above 80%. It was definitely 80% something and for the second quarter. For Q2, we will see stronger growth coming from 22 nm and 28 nm, relatively speaking. 8 in will continue with some rebound. Our Japanese operation is below corporate average, which is more in the 65 nm, 80 nm technologies. For quarter two, even though 8 in will show some improvement, it’s still slightly below corporate average. 12 in as a whole are still slightly above corporate average, but the gap is certainly narrowing.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley1: Okay. Got it. Second question is just regarding the pricing line. You discussed about like for like pricing, blended pricing outlook seems to be tracking better because of improving mix as well as improving utilization across the board. I think two things. One is just on the pricing outlook for full year. I remember last time you mentioned it is going to be firm throughout this year. Would you be able to provide some update on that? Second thing is for the pricing on the like-for-like basis, would you be able to just share with us that’s your strategy on pricing? I understand there’s a lot of macro factors moving, a lot of moving factors in the macro environment that you might need to pass on the cost to your customers.

Would you be able to share if there’s any time in the history that your customers have been willing to or were willing to accept a price hike when your utilization is at around low 80% levels? Two questions here. First one is on the pricing outlook for full year. Any update on the versus the last time frame outlook? Second thing is just on your long-term view that’s regarding the pricing environment right now versus your long-term trajectory of the business that 80%. Is this sufficient enough for your customers to accept a price hike across the board? Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Again, we really don’t want to be perceived as opportunists to take advantage of our customers. The pricing adjustment, coming back to our pricing strategy. The ASP improvements are fundamentally anchored in our value proposition, and also the technology and manufacturing service, which is supported by a structured demand rather than short-term pricing tactics. We are seeing customer market share gains along with ongoing structural shift in the foundry landscape, generating durable demand for UMC. We want to emphasize our differentiated technology and global footprint enable customers to strengthen their competitiveness across all segments, including AI, communication, consumer, and industrial automotive segments. Like stated in our letter to customers, starting from the second half of 2026, we will implement disciplined pricing adjustment to mitigate some cost headwinds by maintaining customers’ competitiveness.

Meanwhile, hopefully more product mix optimization driven by a strong 22 nm demand will continue to drive ASP expansion. Even though the steady recovery in 8 in loading may partially offset the blended ASP list, our overall 8 in recovery plan is progressing well with several fab running nearly 100%.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley1: That’s great. That’s very clear. I think just a quick follow-up on that is probably the firm pricing outlook for full year, you guided last time, is it still holding the same statement, or is this actually incrementally better? On the EBITDA margins, you mentioned just now that you have a better target on that. Would you be able to quantify it? Thanks.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: If we take out the increased depreciation largely coming from the Singapore fab ramp with better loadings and potentially some pricing adjustment in the second half, we are confident if you take out the depreciation, the improved outlook should be able to offset some of the cost increase, especially energy and logistic, et cetera. Our pricing outlook certainly with the price increase ledger to customers is slightly better than the previous quarter.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley1: Got it. Thank you so much, Chitung and David. I’ll be taking the queue.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Next one, [Skati Ku], BNP. Go ahead, please.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley0: Hello, management. Congrats on the very good result and the guidance. My question is a follow-up to a previous one. The consumer segment revenue seems very strong with a 4 percentage point increase in the product. I wonder, is it because of the demand recovery or the pricing dynamic changes? Going forward into the second quarter and the full year, how would you see the trend will be like? Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Consumers, growth in Q1 was mainly driven by Wi-Fi and DTV set-top box, tech. For the second quarter, the growth will continue and will be driven by MCU, LCD controller and power-related products.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley0: Yes. Got it. Thank you very much.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Next one, Laura Chen, Citi. Go ahead, please.

Laura Chen, Analyst, Citi: Yes. Hi, can you hear me clearly?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Yes.

Laura Chen, Analyst, Citi: Yes. Hi, thank you for taking my question and congrats for the good result. I’m just wondering that the progress with Intel’s engagement. We already have a good progress per management of previous mention. Just wondering that for next year, if we start to see some like progress and breakthrough, how should we think about that, the potentially again, increasing, maybe R&D force or any impact on our like revenue and also expense?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We cannot give revenue guidance now. I think the timing-wise, we are talking, we are planning by later 2027, we will start to see initial commercial production. In terms of investment, it’s already happening, and that’s also partially reflect in our increased R&D expenses. Michael can help me to comment more in some details.

Michael Lin, Senior Director of Finance, UMC: Yeah. Yes. This 12 nm project work with Intel continue to go well. We remain on schedule to de-deliver the PDK and associate IP to customer in 2026. We anticipate that the product tape out will commence in 2027, which will making a significant step toward the commercial deployment and future revenue growth. UMC and Intel are working closely to ensure this successful tape out and efficient ramp up to mass production for the 12 nm customer product. So the application that we, for this 12 nm project will be including the DTV, Wi-Fi connectivity and high-speed interface product.

Laura Chen, Analyst, Citi: Sure. Thank you. I’m also wondering that since the expansion in the U.S. is probably one of the direction UMC is looking for. I’m just wondering that following the 12 in technology, any plan to further engage with the more advanced node with Intel?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We have to stick to however we have and to make it execute well and solid. We cannot speculate the future. Our focus now is deliver the 12 nm platform to customers. In the future, if anything makes sense for both partners as well as our customers, certainly we will consider to extend our collaboration to other derivative for technologies. For the time being, the only focus is on 12 nm platform.

Laura Chen, Analyst, Citi: Okay. Very clear. Thank you.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Next one, Felix Pan, KGI. Go ahead, please.

Felix Pan, Analyst, KGI: Hi, thank you for taking my question. I got two question. Recently there’s a lot of rumor talking about the UMC in talk with the client about the potential memory foundry business. I know it’s a little bit unlikely, and Chitung also mentioned that you guys gonna scale down the commodity business, but I still want to get some clarification how the company see the opportunity for the current strong memory demand, both the NAND or NOR. Is that possible? Would do anything business related to the memory? That’s my first question.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Again, we will not be able to comment on, of course, market speculation like this. But our strength is really in the differentiated specialty technology, which elevate our competitiveness to collaborate with customers. We will pursue long-term and sustainable business opportunities, which demonstrate by our current comprehensive technology portfolio, such as embedded high-v, embedded non-volatile memory, BCD, RF SOI, et cetera, et cetera. Again, we will not do short-term opportunity chase. This is just not our way of managing business.

Felix Pan, Analyst, KGI: Okay. Okay. Thank you. That’s very clear. My second question regarding to the 8 in tightness at the moment. Based on my understanding, this is primarily driven by the global leading foundries. They optimize their capacity, so some they’re exiting some business for their 8 in foundry. Primarily I think this is a supply driven, but also we see some incremental demand improvement. Is that possible to break down how you guys see the 8 in tightness is more demand driven or supply tightness driven? If I can may have a follow-up to follow up the [Hause] previous question, what’s the 8 in utilization rate in first quarter? Thanks.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We like to see this is really because of our competitiveness. We always prepare ourselves to cope with industry dynamics, and we welcome any opportunity to support our customers. We view this landscape shift as an opportunity rather than a given. We want to work hard to further optimize our product mix and gradually improve our performance. It’s very difficult to differentiate the two factors you mentioned. Again, we like to think the only thing we can control is our own competitiveness and our technology portfolio. We will continue to work hard to invest, to broaden our technology portfolio and our service to our customers.

Felix Pan, Analyst, KGI: Okay. First quarter’s utilization for 8 in, if I may ask?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: First quarter company-wide was 79%. As I mentioned, previously it was, 8 in is below corporate average. The situation, the delta, the improvement in the second quarter is higher for 8 in. For second quarter, the 8 in average loading still were below corporate average.

Felix Pan, Analyst, KGI: Okay, thanks.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Next one, Bruce Lu, Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, please.

Bruce Lu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Hi. Thank you for taking my question. The question is regarding to the legacy node for 12 in. You know, your competitor is talking about like exiting the market. You know, what’s the real situation for UMC is facing right now, you know? How much more business we can expect for the legacy node, you know, overflow or in different ways that do we see the possibility to, you know, kick off another round of CapEx in especially Singapore for like LTA with the customer for the potential new business?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Well, this is a very hypothetical question for us to answer. I mean, it’s very difficult. I mean, it’s somewhat similar to the fundamental of our 8 in views. The only thing we can control is our own competitiveness and technology portfolio, and we think there still are plenty of upside there, no matter is 8 in or 12 in legacy market segment. Of course, the market dynamic shift help us or have presented the opportunity, but it’s really up to us to have the competitive edge to gain those opportunities. Those are the areas we are focusing right now. If you talk about this advanced packaging, it actually going to take some of the legacy part of the 12 in capacity in our Singapore fab.

If the market dynamic continues with the customer demand, certainly there’s upside in terms of capacity for those 12 in capacity in Singapore.

Bruce Lu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Well, I should ask in different ways that earlier, so the previous investment is that, you know, you only take LTA for the new capacity expense, expansion for your 12 in. Is that still the case for the future capacity expansion?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Well, we don’t want to limit ourselves to the market opportunities. Back in three, four years ago, when the market present the need and we need the customers to share the investment risk, that’s where the LTA comes from. Going forward with all the new technology opportunities, such as the silicon photonics and advanced packaging, we will continue to work closely with our customers, including share the risk of further investment. Will that be in the form of LTA or any other forms, we cannot comment because we are still in the early stage of the technology development. The outlook is promising, but it’s still a little bit too early to comment.

Bruce Lu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Understand. Thank you. My second question is, can you comment a bit about like, you know, 14 nm high-voltage progress? Because I think we asked a question a couple quarters ago when Jason answered that the driver IC might not need to go for 14 nm and beyond. But right now, TSMC is talking about like 14 nm high-voltage process, right? Is that the, like, the technology trend is getting clear that the driver IC will continue to migrate to smaller geometry?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: I think to start by first, we don’t comment on competitor. Okay.

Bruce Lu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: I’m asking about the driver IC technology trend, right?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: We have a proven track record for driver IC. For the current industry lead in 22 nm, 28 nm for late display solution, UMC is always recognized as the global leader. when customer migrating to FinFET, and that’s where our FinFET heavy solution will continue to provide better performance, lower leakage and more dies, more die size savings. again, it’s all boil down to our own competitiveness, and we do have the upcoming FinFET heavy solution as well.

Bruce Lu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: All right, [Chi]. Thank you.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Next one, Gokul Hariharan, JPMorgan. Go ahead, please.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Yeah, hi. On the silicon photonics piece, could you talk a little bit more about the kind of engagements that UMC is making? Are these mostly for pure pluggable silicon photonics, or are you also engaging in some of the CPO-related projects? Given that you also have this PDK for the IMEC version of the technology coming out soon, how should we think about the ramp of the photonics-related revenues over the next couple of years? Should we expect some meaningful progress next year, or do we have to wait for this IMEC related IP to really be out there before we start to see some photonics related revenues really kind of hitting the P&L?

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Yeah. As far as the current silicon photonics, the key milestone is for us to release the PDK in 2027. It’ll be version 1.0. Obviously, it’s based on the IMEC license. As far as the current designs, they’re for PICs, they’re basically pluggable solutions. At the same token, we’re also looking to enabling integration for customers by considering other, you know, hybrid bonds, TSV solutions or Chiplet integrations that will help us be in a better position when CPO kind of takes place further down the road. For now, it’s pretty much all the a lot of the PICs discussions and designs that we’re under customer engagement.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Okay. That’s clear. Secondly, on the mature 12 in nodes, I think 2022 still seems to be pretty strong in terms of utilization. Could you comment a little bit on 40 nm and 65 nm, 55 nm status? Like, how are the utilization there? Especially given you commented there is some slack in the Japan, which I think, if I remember right, was 55 nm and 40 nm. Any forward-looking comments on how that utilization is likely to get filled given that you’re also engaging some of the bridge die projects?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Yeah. As far as for the 40 nnm, 55 nm and 65 nm, short term, I think the revenue contribution for Q2 will be healthy. From a longer term perspective, we’re confident on the business outlook for UMC’s 40 nm and 55 nm and 65 nm technologies. We are seeing longer term, there’s gonna be, you know, more designs and that’ll hopefully lift some of that long-term utilization rates.

Gokul Hariharan, Analyst, JPMorgan: Any products that are that you can call out here that are critical here to lift that utilization rate?

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Well, I think, right now they’re under discussion on customer engagements, but once we’ve seen some real material uplift in UTR, we’ll be more than happy to share them with you. Okay, cool. Thank you.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we’re taking the last question. The last one, Charlie Chan, Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, please, Charlie.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thanks for taking my follow-up questions. First question is follow on the pricing strategy. As a previous caller just mentioned that you did send some letters to customers. I’m wondering what’s the customer’s reaction. Meaning, are they kind of very happy to accept the price hike because they can also pass through to customers? Given some end market difficulty, some customers have some pushback. It would be much easier if management can give us some like preliminary second half price hike assumption. Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Well, I cannot speak for our customers. Again, we appreciate their long-term support. Just like our vendors, those raw material supplier and the energy supplier to UMC, it’s going to be a win-win for the longer term. We need those to continue to provide efficient manufacturing and continuous investment. I’m pretty sure our customer understand where it is coming from, the key is really how UMC can help them to increase their competitiveness in the longer term and gain more shares. I think that’s the key message we want to deliver to our customer, and also we appreciate their long-term support.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Got it. Thanks. Also a follow-up question to Laura’s question about the Intel partnership. I want to associate that to my previous question about your advanced stages, especially you said bridge die and BCD, the Deep Trench Capacitor. Is that the right way to think about that, because Intel EMIB also need those bridge die and DTC discrete components? Do you think is it right way to think about UMC would be a very important partner for Intel’s EMIB-[E] or Intel’s advanced packaging supply chain? Thank you.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: There’s a lot of speculation here and we cannot do that. We have to respect our important partners. Again, our current focus is on 12 nm platform.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Mm.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: No, nothing else. There’s this important collaboration for both parties and, we have to make it work. This is too important, especially for UMC. We are putting all the possible resources, try to make sure we deliver.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Yeah. Anyway, it sounds very, it sounds very reasonable because you have all the capability and technology that your key partner may want. We look forward to your next update. Thanks, Chitung.

Chitung Liu, Chief Financial Officer, UMC: Thank you.

Charlie Chan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thanks.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: That concludes today’s Q&A session. I’ll turn things over to UMC IR Manager for closing remarks. Go ahead, please.

David Wong, Investor Relations Manager, UMC: Thank you everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your questions. As always, if you have any additional follow-up questions, please feel free to contact UMC at [email protected]. Have a good day.

Conference Moderator, Moderator, UMC: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our conference for 1Q 2026. Thank you for your participation in UMC’s conference. There will be a webcast replay within two hours. Please visit www.umc.com under the Investors Event section. You may now disconnect. Thank you again. Goodbye.