Leading Chinese semiconductor equipment makers Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC), Naura Technologies, and ACM Research, recently released their preliminary 2024 financial results. The results revealed significant revenue growth, increased investments in research and development, and advancements in production capabilities, according to TrendForce. The reports highlight a growing demand for chipmaking tools in China as well as strides in the domestic development of such tools.
AMEC, ACM, and Naura are rapidly growing companies producing commercially viable chipmaking tools. AMEC and Naura specialize in etching and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tools, whereas ACM produces equipment for cleaning, polishing, electrochemical plating, and plasma-enhanced CVD. While tools made by these companies are advanced enough, they lag behind those made by market leaders Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron. However, they are also cheaper, and no foreign government can curb their sales to Chinese chipmakers, which has boosted their sales to domestic chipmakers in recent years. Another reason AMEC, ACM, and Naura have managed to increase their sales is that dozens of new fabs are coming online in China, and all of them need equipment.
