By P.R. Venkat

U.S. memory-chip maker Micron Technology Inc. and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. have reached a global settlement related to Micron's allegations of intellectual property theft.

UMC will make a one-time payment of an undisclosed amount to Micron, a joint statement by the two companies said.

In November 2018, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed charges against a Chinese state-owned firm and UMC for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the U.S. chip maker.

The Justice Department had also filed a civil action to prevent UMC and Chinese state-owned Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. from exporting the allegedly stolen technology to the U.S. to compete with U.S. chip firms.

"The companies will globally withdraw their complaints against the other party... UMC and Micron look forward to engaging in mutual business cooperation opportunities," the joint statement said.

Micron, which has over 47,000 lifetime patents, has plans to significantly increase its investment to cater to rising global demand for chips. The company said in October that it plans to boost investment to more than $150 billion over the coming decade.

UMC is a leading global semiconductor foundry company focusing on the fabrication of logic and specialty products for all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC has 12 fabs with combined capacity close to 800,000 wafers per month.

Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-25-21 1950ET