NASDAQ: ACMR
ACM Research, Inc.CIK 0001680062 · Special Industry Machinery NEC
We supply advanced, innovative capital equipment developed for the global semiconductor industry. About this business →
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About ACM Research, Inc.
Source: Item 1 (Business) from the 10-K filed March 2, 2026. Description as filed by the company with the SEC.
Item 1. Business
Overview
We supply advanced, innovative capital equipment developed for the global semiconductor industry.
Our products are designed to address yield-critical and performance-sensitive process steps that become increasingly difficult as semiconductor devices scale to smaller geometries and more complex structures. We focus on developing differentiated process solutions that enable effective particle removal, uniform material deposition, and reliable process control, while helping customers manage cost of ownership, throughput, and environmental considerations. We believe this approach has supported broader adoption of our tools across multiple technology nodes and device types.
Fabricators of advanced integrated circuits, or chips, can use our wet-cleaning, plating, furnace, PECVD, track, and other front-end processing equipment in numerous steps to improve product yield, even at increasingly advanced process nodes. We have designed these products for use in fabricating foundry, logic and memory chips, including dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, and 3D NAND-flash memory chips. We also develop, manufacture and sell a range of advanced packaging equipment to wafer assembly and packaging customers.
Revenue from single wafer cleaning, Tahoe and semi-critical cleaning equipment totaled $626.0 million, or 69.5% of total revenue in 2025, $578.9 million, or 74.0% of total revenue in 2024, and $403.9 million, or 72.4% of total revenue in 2023. Revenue from ECP (front-end packaging), furnace and other technologies totaled $199.6 million, or 22.1% of total revenue in 2025, $151.1 million, or 19.3% of total revenue, in 2024, and $103.4 million, or 18.5% of total revenue in 2023. Revenue from advanced packaging (excluding ECP), services and spares totaled $75.8 million, or 8.4% of total revenue in 2025, $52.2 million, or 6.7% of total revenue in 2024, and $50.5 million, or 9.1% of total revenue in 2023. Selling prices for our tools generally range from $0.5 million to more than $5 million.
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We estimate, based on third-party reports and on customer and other information, that our current product portfolio addresses approximately $21 billion of the 2025 global wafer fab equipment, or WFE, market. By product line, we estimate an approximately $7.3 billion market opportunity is addressed by our wafer cleaning equipment, $5.3 billion by our Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition, or PECVD, equipment, $3.0 billion by our Track equipment, $2.6 billion by our furnace equipment, $1.5 billion by our electro-chemical plating, or ECP, equipment, and more than $1.2 billion by our stress-free polishing, advanced packaging, wafer processing, and other processing equipment.
Gartner estimates the total worldwide semiconductor WFE market grew by 11.0% from $111.6 billion in 2024 to $123.9 billion in 2025, and estimates will increase by 11.8% to $138.5 billion in 2026. Gartner estimates China WFE decreased by 1.7%, from $40.0 billion in 2024 to $39.3 billion in 2025, and is expected to decrease by 9.9% to $35.4 billion in 20261.
We have focused our selling efforts on establishing a referenceable base of leading foundry, logic and memory chip makers, whose use of our products can influence decisions by other manufacturers. We believe this customer base has helped us penetrate the mature chip manufacturing markets and build credibility with additional industry leaders. We have used a “demo-to-sales” process to place evaluation equipment, or “first tools,” with numerous selected customers.
To date, a substantial majority of our sales of semiconductor capital equipment have been to customers located in Asia, and we anticipate that a substantial majority of our revenue from these products will continue to come from customers located in this region for the foreseeable future. Our operation includes sales, marketing and services personnel in North America, Western Europe and Southeast Asia to expand and support major new customer initiatives for the products of ACM Shanghai to additional regions beyond mainland China.
1 The information contains statistical data and estimates, including forecasts, that are based on information provided by Gartner®, "Forecast: Semiconductor Capital Spending, Wafer Fab Equipment and Capacity, Worldwide, 4Q25 Update, Revenue Basis, Bob Johnson et al., 23 December 2025."
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Our Technology and Product Offerings
Semiconductor manufacturing is becoming increasingly complex as device scaling, 3D architectures, advanced packaging, and power efficiency requirements place greater demands on yield-critical process steps. These trends increase the importance of differentiated process equipment capable of operating within tighter tolerances, supporting new materials, and integrating across multiple manufacturing stages.
We develop and deliver a broad portfolio of differentiated semiconductor process equipment that spans front-end wafer fabrication through advanced packaging. Our product platforms are built around proprietary process technologies and system architectures designed to address increasingly complex device structures, tighter process windows, and rising yield sensitivity at advanced nodes. Our current business mix is primarily from wet cleaning, plating, and advanced packaging. We have been investing in the development of new products for several adjacent front-end process steps—including furnace, PECVD, and track—leveraging common design principles, modular platforms, and deep process integration.This multi-product approach enables us to support customers across a larger portion of the manufacturing flow, deepen technical engagement, and is intended to create additional growth opportunities over time.
Wet Cleaning Equipment for Front End Production Processes
Wafer cleaning is a foundational process step in semiconductor manufacturing, directly impacting yield, reliability, and device performance across every major technology node. As device architectures have evolved toward smaller geometries, higher aspect ratios, and complex 3D structures, cleaning requirements have become increasingly demanding—requiring effective particle and residue removal while minimizing pattern damage and chemical consumption. Our wet cleaning portfolio is designed to address these challenges through proprietary process technologies, modular architectures, and application-specific configurations that support both advanced and mature nodes. Our solutions are deployed across multiple front-end process steps and are optimized to balance performance, yield, throughput, cost of ownership, and environmental considerations.
Our wet-cleaning platforms incorporate proprietary SAPS, TEBO, and Tahoe technologies, enabling effective removal of random particles while preserving delicate wafer features, even at increasingly advanced process nodes (the minimum line widths on a chip). The systems are built on a modular architecture that allows customers to tailor tool configurations to specific process requirements, while leveraging standardized chamber, electrical, chemical delivery, and control modules.
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This approach supports rapid configuration, efficient qualification, and optimized chemical selection without sacrificing reliability or scalability. While our tools are primarily designed for 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing, we also offer solutions for 150mm and 200mm wafers, as well as non-standard substrates including compound semiconductors, quartz, sapphire, glass, and plastics.
•Space Alternated Phase Shift, or SAPS, technology for flat and patterned (deep via or deep trench with stronger structure) wafer surfaces. SAPS technology employs alternating phases of megasonic waves to deliver megasonic energy in a highly uniform manner on a microscopic level. We have shown SAPS technology to be more effective than conventional megasonic and jet spray technologies in removing random defects across an entire wafer, with increasing relative effectiveness at more advanced production nodes.
•Timely Energized Bubble Oscillation, or TEBO, technology for patterned wafer surfaces at advanced process nodes. TEBO technology has been developed to provide effective, damage-free cleaning for 2D and 3D patterned wafers with fine feature sizes. We have demonstrated the damage-free cleaning capabilities of TEBO technology on patterned wafers for feature nodes as small as 1xnm (16 to 19 nanometers, or nm), and we have shown TEBO technology can be applied in manufacturing processes for patterned chips with 3D architectures having aspect ratios as high as 60‑to‑1.
•Tahoe technology for cost and environmental savings. Tahoe technology delivers high cleaning performance using significantly less sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide than is typically consumed by conventional high-temperature single-wafer cleaning tools.
•Semi-critical cleaning. Our cleaning portfolio also comprises a suite of semi-critical cleaning products including single wafer back-side cleaning, scrubber, and auto bench.
ECP, Furnace, PECVD, and Track Platforms
Building on our core strengths in wet processing, ACM has expanded into several adjacent front-end process categories, including electrochemical plating (ECP), furnace, PECVD, and track platforms. Each of these product lines incorporates our differentiated approach to tool design, process control, and modular architecture, allowing us to apply proprietary technologies across multiple steps in the manufacturing flow. Our ECP portfolio addresses both front-end interconnect formation and back-end advanced packaging applications, while our furnace, PECVD, and track platforms are at earlier stages of customer evaluation and adoption, with meaningful long-term growth potential. Together, these platforms reflect our strategy to evolve into a broader, multi-product supplier supporting advanced logic, memory, power, and packaging applications.
•ECP technology for advanced metal plating. Our Ultra ECP ap, or Advanced Packaging, technology was developed for back-end assembly processes to deliver a more uniform metal layer at the notch area of wafers prior to packaging. Our Ultra ECP map, or Multi-Anode Partial Plating, technology was developed for front-end wafer fabrication processes to deliver advanced electrochemical copper plating for copper interconnect applications. Ultra ECP map offers improved gap-filling performance for ultra-thin seed layer applications, which is critical for advanced nodes at 28nm, 14nm and beyond.
•Ultra fn Furnace. Our Ultra fn Furnace is our first dry processing tool. Our Ultra fn vertical furnace features a proprietary quartz-based process chamber capable of operating at temperatures up to 1250°C while maintaining uniformity, a performance level that we believe is not currently achieved by other vertical furnace platforms.
•Ultra Pmax™ PECVD tools. Our Ultra Pmax™ PECVD products are equipped with a proprietary designed chamber, gas distribution unit and chuck, and is intended to provide better film uniformity, reduced film stress, and improved particle performance.
•Ultra Track. Our Ultra Track products include a 300mm process tool that delivers uniform air downflow, fast robot handling and configurable software to address specific customer requirements, and has multiple features that enhance performance across defectivity, throughput, and cost of ownership.
Advanced Packaging and other Back-End Processing Tools
We leverage our technology and expertise to provide a range of single-wafer products for back-end wafer assembly and packaging customers. We develop, manufacture and sell a wide range of advanced packaging equipment, such as coaters, developers, photoresist strippers, scrubbers, wet etchers and copper-plating equipment. We focus on providing custom-made, differentiated equipment that incorporates customer-requested features at a competitive price.
For example, our Ultra C Coater is used in applying photoresist, a light-sensitive material used in photolithography to transfer a pattern from a mask onto a wafer. Coaters typically provide input and output elevators, shuttle systems and other
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devices to handle and transport wafers during the coating process. Unlike most coaters, the Ultra C Coater is fully automated. Based on requests from customers, we developed and incorporated the special function of chamber auto-clean module into the Ultra C Coater, which further differentiates it from other products in the market by reducing or eliminating the cleaning of shroud in the coater which increases the tool’s continuous production time. The Ultra C Coater is designed to deliver improved throughput and more efficient tool utilization while eliminating particle generation.
Our other advanced packaging products include: Ultra ECP ap, which delivers a uniform metal layer to finished wafers prior to packaging; Ultra C Developer, which applies liquid developer to selected parts of photoresist to resolve an image; Ultra C PR Megasonic-Assisted Stripper, which removes photoresist; Ultra C Scrubber, which scrubs and cleans wafers; Ultra C Thin Wafer Scrubber, which addresses a sub-market of cleaning very thin wafers for certain Asian assembly factories; and Ultra C Wet Etcher, which etches silicon wafers and copper and titanium interconnects.
Our Customers
To date, substantially all of our sales of equipment for semiconductor-manufacturing have been to customers located in mainland China, and we anticipate that a substantial majority of our revenue from these products will continue to come from customers located in this region for the foreseeable future. We have begun to add to our efforts to further address customers in North America, Western Europe and Southeast Asia, by expanding our direct sales teams and increasing our global marketing activities.
Since 2009 we have delivered more than 1,435 tools to our customers, more than 1,255 of which were repeat orders or acceptances upon contractual performance obligations having been met and thereby generated revenue to us. The balance of the delivered tools is subject to the customer's acceptance of the tool upon the tool's satisfaction of applicable contractual requirements or subject to the customer's subsequent discretionary commitment to purchase the tool.
Our equipment can generally be configured for use by manufacturers, or customer types, who in turn build a range of different semiconductor types. Our revenue by customer type was distributed as follows: Foundry/Logic/Other represented 59%, 71%, and 64% of total revenue in 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively; Memory represented 27%, 22%, and 24%; and Advanced Packaging/Wafer Processing represented 14%, 7%, and 13% for the same periods. For information on our customer concentration risks with respect to revenue and accounts receivable, see note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Sales and Marketing
We market and sell our products worldwide using a combination of our direct sales force and third-party representatives. We employ direct sales teams in mainland China, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Europe. We also employ field application engineers, who are typically co-located with our direct sales teams, to provide technical pre- and post-sale support and other assistance to existing and potential customers throughout the customers’ fab planning and production line qualification and fab expansion phases. Our field application engineers are organized by end markets as well as core competencies in hardware, control system, software and process development to support our customers.
To supplement our direct sales teams, we have contacts with several independent sales representatives in mainland China, Korea and Taiwan. We select these independent representatives based on their ability to provide effective field sales, marketing forecast and technical requirement updates for our products. In the case of representatives, our customers place purchase orders with us directly rather than with the representatives.
Our sales have historically been made using purchase orders with agreed technical specifications. Our sales terms and conditions are generally consistent with industry practice but may vary from customer to customer. We seek to obtain a purchase order four to six months ahead of the customer’s desired delivery date. Consistent with industry practice, customers may delay delivery, adjust, or cancel orders prior to shipment subject to penalties.
Our marketing team focuses on our product strategy and technology road maps, product marketing, new product introduction processes, demand assessment and competitive analysis, customer requirement communication and public relations. Our marketing team also has the responsibility to conduct environmental scans, study industry trends and arrange our participation at major trade shows.
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Manufacturing
We conduct a substantial majority of our product development, manufacturing, support and services in mainland China, with additional product development and subsystem production in Korea. Substantially all of our tools are built to order at our Lingang development and production center. See “Item 2. Properties,” of Part I of this report.
We purchase some of the components and assemblies that we subsequently integrate into our products from a range of suppliers, some of which are single-source suppliers, and/or U.S. based suppliers which can no longer supply ACM Shanghai, ACM Korea and related entities as a result of recently enacted regulations including designations on the BIS Entity List. We believe that we can obtain and qualify alternative sources to supply these components. Nevertheless, any delays or prolonged inability to obtain or to replace these components could have an adverse effect on our operating results and could unfavorably impact our customer relationships. Please see “