United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) reported its strongest quarterly run in years as mature-process demand and factory utilization improved. June consolidated revenue reached NT$23.12 billion, up 0.8% from May and 22.85% year-on-year — a 44-month high. Second-quarter revenue climbed to NT$68.73 billion, up 12.61% sequentially and 16.98% year-on-year, the highest level in 15 quarters.

Sporton, a high-end testing services provider, reported June 2026 revenue of NT$417 million (US$13.05 million), up 0.5% from the previous month and 12.7% from a year earlier. The increase was driven by order transfers tied to new US regulations, and second-quarter revenue reached about NT$1.242 billion, the company’s highest quarterly level in three years.

Samsung Electronics is trying to turn its foundry business into a bigger supplier of custom chips, with Meta Platforms and Anthropic reportedly considering Samsung for processors after its Tesla win, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The potential orders could push Samsung Foundry toward profitability sooner than expected, with industry sources estimating its medium- to long-term order backlog could approach KRW50 trillion (approx. US$32.64 billion).

The global high-bandwidth memory market is expected to pivot from HBM3E to HBM4 in the second half of 2026, setting up a sharper contest for market share among Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology.

Anthropic’s reported move into in-house chip development could matter well beyond Silicon Valley if it helps lower the cost of running AI services worldwide. By prioritizing cheaper inference rather than elite performance, the startup may be signaling a more pragmatic path that could influence how global AI systems are built and priced.

Atomic Semi, the semiconductor equipment startup founded by chip architect Jim Keller, has rebranded as Fab2 and moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, with a vision of mass-producing small fabs. According to Tom’s Hardware, Fab2’s core idea is a “fab fab”: it designs and builds all of its own equipment, from pumps, valves, and gas lines to lithography tools and vacuum chambers, then assembles the components into machines and the machines into a complete fab.