Taiwan Tech Focused Senior Analyst

Patrick Liao

Being invited, I joined Sellside, i.e. JPMorgan, Nomura and Macquarie, totally around 9-10 years. Before that, I joined International Data Corp (https://www.idc.com/) to be the Asia Semiconductor analyst for nearly 2 years, and being invited to do personal lectures in TSMC, UMC, Samsung and etc. In my working experiences, I also had the chance to join Taiwanese panel company, AUO (2409.TT) and the buyside, Chinalife (2823.TT), totally for over 1 year.
I obtained MS degree from the Tsing-Hua University. Then I worked in the Taiwan Semiconductor companies for around 11 years. I had several US patents during my stay in the Semiconductor industry.

Being worked in the sellside and buyside, I deeply dived in the Greater China Semiconductor industry and directly covered some companies, like TSMC (2330.TT, TSM.US), UMC (2303.TT, UMC.US), Vanguard (5347.TT), ASE (3711.TT, ASX.US), SPIL (merged with ASE and delisted), KYEC ( 2449.TT), JCET (600584.CH), ASMPT (522.HK), GWC (6488.TT), WinSemi (3105.TT), Mediatek (2454.TT), Silergy (6415.TT), Novatek (3034.TT), Guoxin Micro (002049.CH) etc.

Vanguard (5347.TT): The 2nd Wave of 8" Wafer Price Increase for 2H26~1Q27

UMC (2303.TT, UMC.US): The 2nd Round Wafer Price Increase Within 2026.

Vanguard (5347.TT): June Revenue Reached a Record High.

UMC (2303.TT; UMC.US): 4Q25 Upbeat; 1Q26 May Be a Challenging Quarter Due to Expected Seasonality.

UMC (2303.TT; UMC.US): 1Q26 Revenue Flat, but GM Downside; AI Will Drive Foundry Market Growth.

UMC (2303.TT; UMC.US): 4Q25 Revenue Is Projected to Decline 5–10% QoQ.

Equity Bottom-Up

United Microelectron Sp Adr / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>United Microelectron Sp Adr (UMC US) anticipates a solid improvement in its second quarter of 2026 (2Q26), potentially outperforming 1Q26 by 5-10%.  </li>
<li>UMC expects its 8-inch wafer production to rise by about a couple percentage points QoQ, supporting mature node demand.</li>
<li>The ongoing US-China trade war is now manifesting clear pricing effects in the foundry industry, benefiting 8-inch wafer makers in particular.  </li>
</ul>


United Microelectron Sp Adr (UMC US) anticipates a solid improvement in its second quarter of 2026 (2Q26), potentially outperforming 1Q26 by 5-10%.  
UMC expects its 8-inch wafer production to rise by about a couple percentage points QoQ, supporting mature node demand.
The ongoing US-China trade war is now manifesting clear pricing effects in the foundry industry, benefiting 8-inch wafer makers in particular.  


UMC (2303.TT; UMC.US): 2Q26 Could Reach To 5%-10% QoQ Growth; 8" Wafer Price Increase.