Yin Zhiyao: The storage cycle has contributed many orders to Zhongwei, and Chinese innovation needs to have differentiation.

Ask AI · How will the storage supercycle catalyze a 224% surge in revenue from metalized thin-film equipment?

On April 1, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (AMEC, 688012) held its 2025 annual performance briefing at the Lingang industrialization base. Chairman and General Manager Yin Zhiyao and the company’s management team attended the meeting.

Facing new opportunities for development in the industry and new challenges from the external environment, Yin Zhiyao said that AMEC has always stood at the forefront of advanced process technology development, never copying or replicating foreign off-the-shelf standard equipment, and has consistently upheld the three basic principles of “technological innovation,” “product differentiation,” and “intellectual property protection.”

He emphasized that as product coverage continues to improve, AMEC is steadily entering a new stage of diversified, platform-based, and large-scale development. In recent years, the company has continuously improved the quality and speed of developing new equipment products, significantly shortening the development cycle of new products from the traditional 3-to-5-year period to within 2 years.

In 2025, AMEC’s R&D spending will be RMB 3.744 billion, accounting for 30.2% of annual sales, far higher than the average 10% to 15% for companies listed on the STAR Market. The company’s product development projects cover six major categories, with more than twenty new equipment products.

Yin Zhiyao said that when the company was smaller in scale, the proportion devoted to R&D was generally higher. As the scale grows, the R&D proportion will decline, but AMEC’s R&D will remain slightly above the international average, at 15% to 20%. At that time, the company’s net profit margin can rise from 17% to 30%.

In 2025, AMEC’s operating revenue reached RMB 12.385 billion, a year-on-year increase of 36.62%. Over the past thirteen years, AMEC’s annual revenue growth rate has remained at 35% or above. Notably, in 2025, AMEC’s thin-film equipment sales saw explosive growth; revenue increased by approximately 224.23% year-on-year, becoming the company’s second growth curve.

Yin Zhiyao said that the company’s technical team successfully developed a dozen-plus core equipment units for conductor and dielectric thin films in a short period of time, and multiple products achieved both technological and market breakthroughs.

When discussing the current storage supercycle driven by artificial intelligence, Yin Zhiyao said that the company’s top flagship products are high-aspect-ratio etching and high-aspect-ratio filling. He is pleased that storage development has brought orders to the company. In addition, the evolution of storage from 2D to 3D is inevitable, and this market will also come online quickly.

When asked about his view on another semiconductor equipment manufacturer, Beijing North Innovation, rapidly expanding its personnel in recent years, Yin Zhiyao said that he personally has had a 40-year relationship with this Northern company and they have a very good relationship.

“Domestic equipment manufacturers are extremely, extremely fast. There may be more than 300 equipment companies in China, covering 100% of the details of customer equipment. Such a ‘Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States’ style competition can only happen in China, which is a very good situation. Our attitude is that only through competition can we move forward,” Yin Zhiyao said. He said he does not want to become an overly bloated, very large-scale company, but instead needs a very lean team that can improve labor productivity.

Regarding competitors’ technological breakthroughs in key equipment, he said this is a good thing for truly advanced manufacturing and is something to be welcomed. If China wants to pursue technological innovation, it cannot develop by following foreign equipment models; it must have its own innovation and differentiated technologies. He said he is confident that AMEC’s team can continue to maintain its leading position.

For the future industry outlook for semiconductor equipment, Yin Zhiyao said that with China’s logic-chip development, storage memory chips are currently in a strong-cycle phase. Combined with breakthroughs in advanced processes and advanced manufacturing, it suggests that at least over the coming years, China’s high-end chip equipment industry is set to perform well.

In addition to etching and thin film—its two main equipment categories—AMEC is also actively expanding into the broader pan-semiconductor and emerging equipment fields, such as equipment for large flat-panel areas and equipment for advanced packaging.

Yin Zhiyao said that with the successive launch of its R&D and production bases in Guangzhou and Chengdu, AMEC’s total plant area in the future will reach 850,000 square meters, further strengthening its capabilities in product R&D and high-end equipment manufacturing.

AMEC said that in the future, it will continue to adhere to the strategy of combining “three-dimensional growth” and “organic growth and epitaxial expansion,” with the goal of becoming a global first-tier semiconductor equipment company by 2035 in terms of scale, product competitiveness, and customer satisfaction.