Domestic semiconductor equipment has been making frequent moves.
Recently, the first domestic commercial electron beam lithography machine in China, "Xizhi", announced the application test, which has excited the industry.
The year 2025 has witnessed frequent developments in China's semiconductor equipment industry. There has been an influx of capital, technological breakthroughs, and the entry of new players.
At the beginning of the year, in January 2025, the third phase of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund injected 71 billion yuan and 93 billion yuan into Guotou Jixin and Huaxin Dingxin funds respectively, focusing on supporting wafer manufacturing, equipment materials, and AI-related fields. According to the plan, the fund will promote the localization of "bottleneck" areas such as lithography machines and photoresists and increase investment in technologies such as advanced packaging and HBM storage.
After that, the semiconductor equipment industry has witnessed a series of news about expansions and capacity increases.
In March, AMEC (688012) announced that it plans to invest in establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary, AMEC Semiconductor Equipment (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., in the High-tech Zone of Chengdu to build a R & D and production base and the southwestern headquarters project. AMEC will invest approximately 3.05 billion yuan from 2025 to 2030 to build a R & D center, a production and manufacturing base, office buildings, and ancillary facilities in the High-tech Zone of Chengdu, and equip them with advanced automated production lines and high-precision testing equipment to meet mass production needs.
In June, Tuojing Technology (688072) stated that the construction project of its high-end semiconductor equipment industrialization base has started and is progressing steadily as planned. Tuojing Janke (Haining) Semiconductor Equipment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tuojing Technology, is planning a new R & D and industrialization base.
In the same month, Changchuan Technology (300604), the leading company in testing equipment, announced a plan to issue shares to specific investors to raise 3.132 billion yuan, of which 2.192 billion yuan will be used for the R & D of semiconductor test machines and AOI equipment. This financing is the largest since Changchuan Technology went public, aiming to accelerate the localization process of high-end testing equipment.
01 Counter-cyclical Growth in Semiconductor Investment
Capital is ruthless yet shrewd. According to the latest statistics from CINNO Research, in the first half of 2025, the total investment in China's semiconductor industry (including Taiwan, China) was 455 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.8%. However, investment in semiconductor equipment increased counter-cyclically by 53.4%, becoming the only field with positive growth.
In the second half of the year, news about investments in the semiconductor equipment track continued to be released frequently.
In July, Yitang Semiconductor, a domestic semiconductor equipment company, was officially listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, raising 2.497 billion yuan. It will focus on the R & D of etching equipment for advanced processes of 14nm and below, the industrialization of high-end thin-film deposition equipment, and the construction of a global service center. Yitang Semiconductor's customers cover mainstream domestic wafer fabs such as SMIC, YMTC, and CXMT. Its self-developed 14nm etching equipment has passed customer verification.
In the same month, Zhongdao Optoelectronics announced the completion of a new round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan. The raised funds will be mainly used for the R & D of display panel and semiconductor technologies and products to expand its high-performance semiconductor product portfolio. One month later (on August 7th), Zhongdao Optoelectronics filed for guidance with the Guangdong Securities Regulatory Bureau, officially kicking off its process of listing on the A-share market.
On August 1st, the first PL - SR series inkjet step-and-repeat nanoimprint lithography equipment independently designed and developed by Pulin Technology passed the acceptance test and was delivered to a domestic customer with special processes. According to the official introduction, this is China's first semiconductor-grade step-and-repeat nanoimprint lithography system, which has overcome key technical problems such as the full non-vacuum bonding of step-and-repeat hard plates, inkjet coating and thin-film imprinting, and control of the residual layer of imprint resist, and can be used for nanoimprint lithography processes with a line width of < 10nm.
On August 4th, Lvtong Technology, a listed company of venue electric vehicles in Shenzhen, Guangdong, issued an announcement, stating that it plans to acquire 51% of the equity of Jiangsu Damo Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Jiangsu Damo"), a semiconductor equipment company in Nanjing, Jiangsu, by paying the equity transfer price and capital increase, with a total transaction consideration of 530.4 million yuan.
Jiangsu Damo is a provider of front-end metrology and inspection equipment solutions for semiconductors. It was established in April 2017. Its equipment and technical services cover mainstream categories such as critical dimension scanning electron microscopes, bright-field defect inspection equipment, dark-field defect inspection equipment, particle counters, film thickness gauges, overlay metrology tools, and defect analysis scanning electron microscopes, which are suitable for 6 - to 12 - inch wafer production lines and can support processes up to 14nm. Some of its self-developed equipment has entered the customer verification stage.
One of the reasons for an electric vehicle company to spend a large amount of money is that Jiangsu Damo has entered the supply chains of global leaders such as SMIC, TSMC, and GlobalFoundries.
On August 6th, Xinkong Yuze completed its angel round of financing, focusing on semiconductor equipment manufacturing. Xinkong Yuze is a company specializing in the manufacturing of special equipment for semiconductor devices. This round of investment was jointly participated in by Suining Industrial Investment and Pioneer Rare Materials.
On August 6th, Lihexing (301013.SZ) disclosed a plan to issue shares to specific investors in a simplified procedure in 2025, stating that the total amount of funds raised (including issuance fees) for this issuance will not exceed 167.5 million yuan (inclusive). After deducting the issuance fees, the net amount of the raised funds will be entirely used for the R & D and industrialization project of precision components for semiconductor equipment and for supplementing working capital.
02 2025: A Year of Breakthrough for China's Semiconductor Equipment
Looking back on the development history of China's semiconductor equipment in the future, 2025 will be a special year, as domestic manufacturers have made breakthroughs in different fields.
At SEMICON China 2025 in March, many semiconductor equipment companies launched new products.
Shenzhen Xinkailai Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd. made its debut and launched 31 semiconductor equipment products in 6 major categories, including 18 semiconductor process equipment covering etching, thin-film, and diffusion equipment, and 13 metrology and inspection equipment covering optical inspection, optical metrology, PX metrology, and power testing.
Northern Huachuang announced its entry into the ion implantation equipment market and launched its first ion implanter, Sirius MC 313. AMEC Semiconductor Equipment launched its self-developed 12 - inch wafer edge etching equipment, Primo Halona.
Tuojing Technology launched new products such as the ALD series. At SEMICON China 2025, Tuojing Technology launched new products in the ALD series, 3D - IC and advanced packaging series (low - stress fusion bonding equipment, chip - to - wafer hybrid bonding, laser lift - off equipment, and bonding overlay accuracy metrology equipment), and CVD series.
The counter-cyclical growth of investment in China's semiconductor equipment is driven by multiple factors. In the long run, although the continuous technological blockade and export controls imposed by the United States have brought huge pressure to China's semiconductor industry, they have unexpectedly stimulated the determination of domestic independent innovation. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce has pressured international equipment giants such as ASML, Applied Materials, and Lam Research through the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to strictly restrict the export of key equipment such as high - end lithography machines to China, resulting in frequent obstacles in China's introduction of advanced process equipment.
Facing this situation, the only choice for China's semiconductor industry may be to "overcome every difficulty one by one".
In terms of policies, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (the Big Fund) continues to play a leading role, focusing on supporting local equipment enterprises and promoting the R & D and industrialization of core technologies. Local governments have also actively followed up. Cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen have successively introduced a series of preferential policies such as special funds, tax exemptions, and R & D subsidies, jointly creating a favorable policy environment for the growth of semiconductor equipment, providing solid support for the growth of industry investment from both capital and institutional aspects.
03 Driving Forces for the Expansion of the Semiconductor Equipment Industry
Excitingly, the semiconductor equipment industry has accumulated profitability through continuous progress.
In 2024, Northern Huachuang became the "profit king" in the A - share semiconductor industry with a net profit of 5.6 billion yuan. This performance not only demonstrates the company's strong performance but also serves as a microcosm of the development of China's semiconductor equipment industry. Driven by both policy support and market demand, domestic leading equipment enterprises have entered a virtuous development track.
Currently, there is still vast room for the localization of semiconductor equipment. Each company is making continuous efforts through differentiated competition, and domestic substitution remains the core logic for the industry's progress. At the beginning of 2024, SEMI predicted that the semiconductor capital expenditure (Capex) in mainland China would be approximately 220 billion yuan, but the actual amount for the whole year reached 300 billion yuan, exceeding the expectation by about 30%. This growth was mainly driven by geopolitical factors. Wafer fabs actively stocked up on overseas equipment before the implementation of export control measures, driving up the overall investment. Among them, domestic equipment suppliers received orders worth about 60 billion yuan, accounting for 20% of the total.
According to SEMI's prediction, the domestic semiconductor capital expenditure in 2025 is expected to be about 280 billion yuan. Domestic equipment suppliers are expected to achieve a year - on - year growth of about 20%, with the expected order value reaching about 72 billion yuan, and their share in the total investment is expected to increase to 24% - 25%. The verification and introduction of domestic equipment, materials, and components in downstream applications are accelerating, and the localization process of the industrial chain is speeding up. As the packaging and testing equipment at the downstream of the industrial chain increases in volume, the localization process of testing equipment is progressing smoothly.
On the other hand, the continuous expansion of production capacity by advanced logic and memory chip manufacturers, along with continuous technological breakthroughs in advanced process equipment, have jointly led to a significant increase in the demand for semiconductor equipment and components. Among them, packaging equipment has been positively affected first.
In the first half of the year, Changjiang Electronics Technology achieved an operating income of 18.61 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 20.1%. In the second quarter, it achieved an operating income of 9.27 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 7.2%, both reaching new highs for the same period in history. Huatian Technology achieved a net profit of 226 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year - on - year increase of 15.81%. In the second quarter, it achieved an operating income of 4.211 billion yuan, an increase of 643 million yuan from the previous quarter, and the single - quarter income reached a new high.
The continuous growth of computing power demand has led to a high - level boom in the advanced packaging market. Driven by the strong demand for AI computing power chips such as Cambricon and Huawei Ascend, the advanced packaging industrial chain has entered an active capacity expansion stage due to tight production capacity. The increase in orders in the packaging and testing segment will also become the driving force for the development of the semiconductor equipment industry.
04 A Long and Arduous Journey, but Success is Achievable
China's semiconductor equipment industry is showing a strong momentum of independent development. However, at the current stage of development, semiconductor equipment enterprises still face many challenges on their path. Under the pressure of high - end technology breakthroughs, continuous high R & D investment has become an inevitable choice. However, the characteristics of the semiconductor equipment industry, such as a long market verification cycle and slow cash flow recovery, also mean that some enterprises are constantly facing the reality of increasing revenue but not profit.
The road ahead is still full of challenges.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Semiconductor Industry Insights", author: Liu Qian, published by 36Kr with authorization.