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ACM Research supplies equipment that chipmakers use to clean and process wafers during production, as well as tools for advanced packaging. Most revenue comes from cleaning equipment, including its SAPS, TEBO and Tahoe platforms. Plating, furnace and other processing equipment contribute a smaller share, alongside packaging tools, services and spare parts. Buyers include foundries, logic and memory chipmakers, and wafer assembly and packaging companies.
The company configures tools to each customer’s production requirements. Repeat buyers generally pay in installments around delivery, testing and acceptance. Customers evaluating a tool type for the first time may pay nothing until they accept it, so ACM Research can spend money building and delivering equipment well before collecting payment. Most revenue comes from a small number of customers, almost entirely in mainland China. Demand depends on their equipment budgets, which follow current and expected chip demand.
ACM Research conducts most development and manufacturing in mainland China, principally through its controlled, but not wholly owned, operating company ACM Shanghai. U.S. export controls generally prevent ACM Shanghai and ACM Korea from obtaining components, software and technology subject to U.S. export jurisdiction without authorization; replacement components may need customer qualification. Mainland China rules and bank agreements also restrict ACM Shanghai’s ability to transfer funds to ACM Research.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
ACM Research’s results depend heavily on mainland China’s chip-capacity investment and cleaning-tool competition, including from NAURA Technology Group and SCREEN Holdings, neither of which appears here.
Lam Research competes directly with ACM Research for chipmakers’ spending on wafer cleaning, plating, furnace and thin-film deposition equipment, including PECVD. Its cleaning business is particularly relevant: cleaning equipment supplied 69.5% of ACM Research’s revenue in 2025.
Applied Materials challenges ACM Research in equipment that deposits thin films and coats and develops wafers—PECVD and track products—sold to chipmakers. Its broader fabrication and advanced-packaging portfolio means those product developments matter more for this rivalry than its overall revenue.
Veeco and ACM Research both seek spending from chip-fabrication and advanced-packaging customers on single-wafer wet-processing and other process equipment. Veeco’s logic, memory and advanced-packaging business is the relevant comparison, rather than its hard-disk-drive equipment.
Axcelis Technologies Inc and ACM Research both depend on chipmakers expanding or upgrading production lines: Axcelis sells ion implantation equipment, while ACM sells cleaning and other fabrication tools. Watch Axcelis’s implantation business for that spending cycle; it generated 98.2% of its revenue in 2025.
ASML and ACM Research share chipmakers’ fabrication-investment cycle: ASML sells systems that print patterns on silicon, while ACM sells cleaning and other process tools. ASML’s growing EUV adoption by advanced logic and DRAM customers shows spending in those customer groups, rather than directly measuring ACM’s cleaning demand.
KLA and ACM Research both benefit from chipmakers spending on fabrication and better manufacturing yields: KLA sells process-control equipment, while ACM sells cleaning and processing tools. KLA’s Semiconductor Process Control business is the useful read on that spending, particularly customers’ efforts to improve yields and reduce waste.
Onto Innovation Inc. tracks investment by the wafer-fabrication and advanced-packaging manufacturers that ACM Research serves: Onto sells tools that measure structures and inspect defects, while ACM sells process equipment. Watch Onto’s advanced-packaging demand alongside ACM’s Advanced Packaging/Wafer Processing customer group, which supplied 14% of ACM’s revenue in 2025.
Ultra Clean Holdings follows the fabrication-tool spending cycle that drives ACM Research, supplying equipment makers with assemblies and subsystems rather than selling ACM’s process tools to chipmakers. Its Products business, including gas, fluid and chemical delivery systems, is the relevant signal for equipment-building demand.
MKS Inc.’s semiconductor business follows the equipment-investment cycle that drives ACM Research, selling instruments and subsystems that enable chip manufacturing while ACM sells process tools. Watch MKS’s semiconductor business separately from its electronics, packaging and specialty-industrial markets.
Lam Research Corp earningsLRCX
Lam Research’s report will show chipmakers’ spending on wafer-cleaning tools, the largest part of ACM Research’s sales and a category where the two companies compete directly.
Focus on Lam Research’s cleaning business, not just its total revenue. Strength would show chipmakers are still buying this type of tool, supporting the market ACM Research shares; weakness would point to pressure on customers’ budgets for cleaning equipment, but would not prove ACM’s own sales are falling.
ACM Research, Inc. earningsThis company
ACM Research sells cleaning and other process tools mainly to chipmakers in mainland China, and its report will show whether shipments are turning into accepted revenue, profit and cash collection.
Read revenue, gross margin and operating cash flow together. More tool revenue recognized, a steadier gross margin and better operating cash flow would show that orders and customer acceptance are becoming profitable sales that bring in cash. Revenue growth alongside weak margin and continued operating cash outflow would show that product mix, inventory costs or customer collections still weigh on the business.
