In a milestone for China’s semiconductor industry, three Chinese equipment manufacturers have ranked among the world’s top 20 by sales for the first time in 2025, according to data from Japanese research firm Global Net, up from just one company in 2022, underscoring China’s accelerated progress in bolstering the domestic supply chain. However, a gap still exists in core equipment such as lithography machines, and more efforts are needed to achieve breakthroughs, experts said. The sales ranking reveals Naura Technology Group jumped from the 8th place in 2022 to 5th in 2025. It now only trails global giants ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. Founded in 2001, Naura has not yet disclosed its annual revenue for 2025, and Global Net based the ranking partially on estimated data.
New to the list at 13th place is Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), whose etching equipment comes close to the cutting edge. In chipmaking, etching is the key process of selectively removing unwanted material layers from a silicon wafer to engrave precise 3D patterns, circuits and transistor structures. Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), which specializes in lithography machines that print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, secured the 20th position. While acknowledging generational gaps with market leader ASML, the Shanghai-based company’s presence highlights China’s domestic capability in this most critical and challenging segment.
Expanding the list to the top 30 would include two more Chinese firms: ACM Research and Hwatsing Technology. Roger Sheng, Vice President of Research at U.S. market research company Gartner, said: “It’s fair to say that Chinese companies’ technological gap with international industry leaders is continuously narrowing.” The manufacturing of advanced chips involves over 1,000 process steps, each requiring specialized equipment. Chinese suppliers can now cover equipment for almost every stage, including deposition, etching and cleaning. This burgeoning ecosystem includes a wave of emerging startups, experts said. Yin Zhiyao, Chairman and General Manager of AMEC, said at a meeting in May 2025 that the company’s product portfolio includes 30% of all the integrated circuit equipment categories, and it aims to collaborate with partners to offer 60% of all high-end IC equipment categories over the next five to 10 years. Yin said that AMEC would soon complete the development of more than 20 types of thin-film equipment that are subject to international export restrictions to China, and the company aims to finish the development of nearly 40 thin film equipments by 2029, the China Daily reports.
