Expanding UMC and GlobalFoundries mull merger
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Taiwanese foundry United Microelectronics Corp. and GlobalFoundries are considering a merger, according to Reuters, just as UMC has opened a US$5 billion wafer fab in Singapore.
The city-state is also a GlobalFoundries location.
The two foundries are similar in that they are not pursuing logic business at the leading-edge of performance, a business area dominated by TSMC. UMC and GlobalFoundries are working on more mature manufacturing process technologies across the broad range of analog, digital, power and RF functions.
While there is overlap in the two companies’ offerings the merger would create a larger US-based firm with manufacturing in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan, the US and Germany. UMC and GlobalFoundries were the fourth- and fifth-ranked foundries respectively in 4Q24, each with about 5 percent market share, according to TrendForce. A merger would move them up to be the second-ranked foundry.
TSMC grabs two-thirds of the foundry market
Meanwhle UMC unveiled its latest fab facility in Singapore on Tuesday, April 1, saying it would be equipped to manufacture 22nm and 28nm CMOS chips, starting volume production in 2026. The facility is a greenfield expansion adjacent to UMC’s existing fab in the Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park. Up to US$5 billion will be invested to bring a first phase to full capacity of 30,000 wafer starts per month, with room for further investment in a second phase expansion in the future.
The manufacturing processes will be suitable to make smartphone display chips, power-efficient memory chips for IoT devices, and next-generation connectivity chips.
The expansion is expected to create approximately 700 jobs locally over the next few years, including process and equipment engineers as well as R&D engineers.
“This fab expansion closely aligns with the Singapore government’s vision to become a leading advanced manufacturing hub, and we are deeply grateful for their support,” said SC Chien, President of UMC, in a statement.
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