Asia Technology: Secondary Foundry: Faster-than-expected recovery with more favourable pricing

Research evidence excerpt

Asia Technology: Secondary Foundry: Faster-than-expected recovery with more favourable pricing

23 June 2026

Equities

Semiconductors & Equipment Asia Technology

Secondary Foundry: Faster-than-expected recovery

with more favourable pricing Asia & United States

◆ Capacity consolidation accelerate & surging AI peripheral

Ted Lin*

demand to drive faster ramp of utilisation and better ASP Analyst, Taiwan Technology

HSBC Securities (Taiwan) Corporation Limited

◆ Extension to new product exposure to drive value add to ted.ht.lin@hsbc.com.tw+886 2 6631 2870

specialty foundry in the long run Frank Lee*

Global Head of Tech Hardware & Semi Research

◆ Upgrade UMC/VIS to Buy; maintain GFS/SMIC at Hold/Buy; The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited frank.lee@hsbc.com.hk

increase TPs for all +852 2996 6916

Faster ramp in utilisation from AI demand and further consolidation: While the * Employed by a non-US affiliate of HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, and is

not registered/ qualified pursuant to FINRA regulations

capacity consolidation from leading foundries has already been the main catalyst for

secondary foundries, we expect the trend to accelerate, with expectations of TSMC

extending consolidation to legacy 12” (28-90nm), leading to a more disciplined supply

environment. In addition, with ongoing AI data centre investment and deployment,

the wafer foundries supply tightness has extended from AI accelerators into AI

peripheral demand, such as PMIC, MCU, etc. The above drivers lead us to expect a

faster ramp in the secondary foundry utilisation rate (UTR). We raise our average

UTR assumptions to 91%/87%/93% for 2H26/1H27/2H27, higher than consensus

expectations of 85%/84%/88%. The rise of AI also leads to demand in new areas,