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Howard Liu

Chinese chip equipment giant Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) has unveiled six new machines – at different stages of commercialisation – in a single day as the company accelerates research and development to feed soaring local demand driven by Beijing’s self-reliance push.
The new line-up, announced at an industry conference in Wuxi on Tuesday, spans several steps in chip production, including etching tools that carve microscopic patterns into wafers, deposition systems that build ultra-thin layers of material and the complex equipment used to make silicon-carbide power chips.
Unveiling six tools simultaneously marks a notable shift for AMEC as it accelerates its transformation from an etching specialist to an all-around semiconductor equipment firm. Four of the six new products are deposition tools.
The global etching and deposition markets are dominated by US and Japanese giants like Lam Research, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron.
During an investor briefing last month, AMEC said it had cut its product development cycle from three to five years down to two years or less. The company poured 2.04 billion yuan (US$303.5 million) into research and development in the first half of the year – a 36.9 per cent year-on-year surge representing 30.5 per cent of its total revenue.
It currently has more than 20 new machines under development across six equipment categories.
Tuesday’s announcement was AMEC’s second large batch of product releases in six months, following the unveiling of four new machines at Semicon China in March.
AMEC has developed 54 types of semiconductor equipment, including 26 etching machines and 24 thin-film deposition tools, as well as chemical mechanical polishing and metrology equipment. Its products now cover more than 30 per cent of front-end semiconductor equipment categories.


Over the next five years, company chairman Gerald Yin Zhiyao said in an earnings forecast last month, AMEC aims to expand its coverage to more than 60 per cent of the high-end integrated-circuit equipment market through internal development and acquisitions.
It is also expanding manufacturing capacity. AMEC currently has about 600,000 square metres of factory space and plans to increase that to 900,000 square metres over the next five years, with new facilities under development in Shanghai’s Lingang area, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
The expansion comes as Chinese equipment makers collectively gain ground amid Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency and increased spending by domestic chipmakers.
Other domestic equipment makers have also stepped up product announcements. Piotech unveiled at least seven new machines at Semicon China this year, while Naura Technology Group introduced at least five new tools in the first half of the year.
Bernstein Research estimated that Chinese suppliers accounted for about 31 per cent of China’s dry-etch equipment market and 27 per cent of deposition equipment in 2025. AMEC and Naura Technology are already the two dominant, domestic dry-etch suppliers, while AMEC has been expanding rapidly into deposition products.
The shift is part of a broader effort by Chinese toolmakers to move beyond breakthroughs in individual machines and build more comprehensive product portfolios.
In a report last month, Goldman Sachs said China’s semiconductor equipment industry was expanding from etching and deposition into more advanced models, such as high-aspect-ratio etchers and atomic-layer deposition systems, as well as new categories including inspection and metrology equipment.
The investment bank expected Chinese suppliers to account for 38 per cent of wafer-fabrication equipment revenue in China by 2028, up from 31 per cent in 2026.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A rapid R&D drive is powering the firm’s transition beyond its core business

A rapid R&D drive is powering the firm’s transition beyond its core business