According to Zhiyu Finance APP, United Microelectronics (UMC.US), focusing on mature chip processes such as 14nm and 28nm, announced its latest Company Business Data on Tuesday, revealing that this Taiwan-based chip manufacturer achieved a revenue of 18.97 billion New Taiwan dollars in December, representing a year-on-year growth of 11.7%. More importantly, after a significant decline of 20% in total revenue throughout 2023, United Microelectronics is expected to regain a growth trend in 2024. The data shows that from January to December, the total revenue of United Microelectronics grew by 4.39%, accumulating to approximately 232.3 billion New Taiwan dollars.

For United Microelectronics, achieving growth for the entire year of 2024 is quite challenging, as the inventory surplus of mature process chips since the end of 2022 has led to persistent demand weakness, severely impacting United Microelectronics' performance in 2023, causing a significant decline in revenue for multiple consecutive quarters, resulting in a total revenue drop in 2023 under extremely weak demand for 'non-AI chips'.

The growth in 2024 performance for United Microelectronics, which focuses on mature processes, also largely indicates that not only has the demand for data center AI chips like NVIDIA's H100/H200 at 5nm and below continued to surge, driving high-end process chip products, but the renewed demand for enterprise-level AI chips has also led to a significant recovery. The overall demand for mature process chips at 14nm and above is also entering a recovery phase, signifying that the entire chip industry is beginning to emerge from a two-year-long period of demand weakness, moving towards recovery and prosperity.

Unlike Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US), known as the 'king of semiconductor foundry' which focuses on the most advanced chip process technologies (such as 5nm, 4nm, and 3nm), United Microelectronics offers mature process technology ranging from 14nm to 28nm and larger, concentrating on mature process nodes. These chip products based on United Microelectronics' mature nodes are widely used in communication, Consumer Electronics, automotive electronics, and industrial fields, focusing on stable and cost-effective mature nodes to meet the overall demand of traditional industrial sectors and the mid-range Consumer Electronics market. This is also why some Analysts believe that since the explosive growth in demand for data center AI chips, United Microelectronics' performance data better represents the 'demand reality' of the entire chip industry compared to Taiwan Semiconductor.

The analyst team at financial giant Bank of America recently stated in a report that chip stocks could still be one of the brightest-performing sectors in the U.S. stock market by 2025, and the contribution to growth potential is expected to expand from chip companies like the 'big three AI Chips' that greatly benefit from the AI boom to include 'non-AI' chip stocks such as analog chips and electric vehicle chips, which have long underperformed the Large Cap and PHLX Semiconductor Index.

The team led by Bank of America Analyst Vivek Arya wrote in this research report on semiconductor stocks that "Even after a significant surge, there is still a vast upward potential for chip stocks, and we believe two different upward trend lines will emerge in 2025." In the first half of the year, investments in AI driven by the USA’s cloud computing super clients, alongside the scale of NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture AI GPU deployment, will maintain the upward momentum of these semiconductor companies closely associated with AI. In the second half, if the global economy continues to recover, market focus may shift towards inventory replenishment and the rebound of automotive production, which means that semiconductor manufacturers in the automotive/industrial sector, which have long been less crowded and significantly underperformed the Large Cap of the US stock market, are expected to regain investors' favor.

The analyst team at Bank of America, led by Alia, also stated that overall, the semiconductor market is expected to see a 15% increase in total sales in 2025 based on strong growth in 2024, reaching $725 billion. This is still a very strong growth pace, even though it is a decline compared to this year's predicted growth rate of 20%. The demand boom cycle in the semiconductor market typically lasts about 2.5 years, followed by a decline cycle of up to one year, and we are currently only in the mid-phase of this semiconductor upcycle that began in the fourth quarter of 2023.