Greater China Technology Semiconductors: May MCU Spot Prices: STM's 32-Bit down 7% MoM, while GD's 32-Bit down 11% MoM

Research evidence excerpt

Greater China Technology Semiconductors: May MCU Spot Prices: STM's 32-Bit down 7% MoM, while GD's 32-Bit down 11% MoM

Update

May 12, 2026 07:09 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley Taiwan Limited+MGreater China Technology Semiconductors | Asia Daniel Yen, CFA

Pacific Equity Analyst

Daniel.Yen@morganstanley.com +886 2 2730-2863

Charlie Chan

Equity AnalystMay MCU Spot Prices: STM's Charlie.Chan@morganstanley.com +886 2 2730-1725

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+

32-Bit down 7% MoM, while Daisy Dai, CFA

Equity Analyst

Daisy.Dai@morganstanley.com +852 2848-7310GD's 32-Bit down 11% MoM

Morgan Stanley Taiwan Limited+

Tiffany YehKey update:

Tiffany.Yeh@morganstanley.com +886 2 7712-3032

• In May, STMicro's 32-bit MCU fell 7% MoM to Rmb12.8, and GigaDevice's

Lucas Wang

(GD) 32-bit MCU spot price fell 11% MoM to Rmb8.5. Following STMicro's Research Associate

price adjustment, we noticed GigaDevice hiked price again effective 1 May. Lucas.Wang@morganstanley.com +886 2 2730-2875

• Despite contract price hikes, spot prices declined in May as overall demand Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+

remains lukewarm; only server and drone demand remains robust. As for Ethan Jia

Research Associate

supply, we believe mature node foundries are likely to hike prices again, Ethan.Jia@morganstanley.com +852 3963-2287

which could pressure MCU design houses' gross margin.

Greater China Technology Semiconductors

• We still expect an 'L-shaped' recovery unless we see a meaningful decline in

Asia Pacific

memory prices or a pickup in edge AI. We prefer large MCU players (e.g., Industry View Attractive

GigaDevice) and WiFi MCU vendors (Espressif) for long-term edge AI

opportunities, while we remain UW on Nuvoton, waiting for GM recovery

before turning more positive on the stock.