United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) saw its stock price surge 13.04% during intraday trading on Wednesday. The significant move followed the company's release of its first-quarter 2026 financial results, which significantly exceeded market expectations.

The semiconductor foundry reported earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) of $0.20, a 122% increase from $0.09 in the same period last year and well above analyst estimates. Quarterly revenue reached $1.93 billion, marking a 10.7% year-over-year increase. Beyond the strong historical performance, UMC provided bullish forward guidance, forecasting that wafer shipments will increase by a high-single-digit percentage sequentially in the second quarter.

Critically, the company announced plans to implement a wafer price adjustment in the second half of 2026. Management expressed confidence in resilient market demand across communications, computing, consumer, and industrial segments, stating that the pricing move reflects the evolving supply-demand environment and continued investments required to support customer growth.