United Microelectronics

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers. United Microelectronics Corporation was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

On May 22, 1980, UMC was spun off from the Industrial Technology Research Institute and was formally established as the first private integrated circuit company in Taiwan.

1985: UMC was officially listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange . It was the first listed semiconductor company in Taiwan. At that time, Morris Chang was its chairman.

1995: UMC decided to transform from an IDM company with its own products to a professional pure-play foundry.

1996: Spun off its IC design units to establish MediaTek, Novatek, ITE Technology, Faraday Technology, AMIC Technology, and Davicom.

Lists on the New York Stock Exchange as Taiwan's first semiconductor company to do so.

Produces the first chips using copper process technology and the first 0.13 micron ICs in the semiconductor industry.

2008: Listed as a constituent stock on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the first time.

2020: Reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a 2018 trade secrets case.

The United States Department of Justice indicted UMC and Chinese firm Fujian Jinhua in 2018, alleging that they conspired to steal intellectual property from U.S. company Micron. In October 2020, UMC and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a plea agreement, with UMC pleading guilty to one count of receiving and possessing a stolen trade secret and agreeing to pay a fine of $60 million. UMC’s plea and Plea Agreement resolved the 2018 trade secrets case brought against UMC by the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the Plea Agreement, DOJ agreed to dismiss the original indictment against UMC, including allegations of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to steal multiple trade secrets from Micron Technology, Inc. , patent-related allegations, and alleged damages and penalties of $400 million USD to $8.75 billion. The one trade secret at issue in the guilty plea and Plea Agreement related to older technology that had been in mass production worldwide for several years. DOJ also dismissed a related civil case against UMC. Aside from the fine amount, UMC has no further financial obligations to DOJ. The Plea Agreement also provides that UMC will cooperate with DOJ and will be subject to a three-year term of non-supervised probation.