[News] China’s Chipmaking Tool Giant AMEC Eyes Sizone Acquisition to Broaden CMP Equipment Reach

Amid China’s push to consolidate its semiconductor industry and strengthen chip self-sufficiency, AMEC—the country’s leading domestic supplier of etching and thin-film deposition tools—announced on December 18 plans to acquire a controlling stake in Sizone Technology, according to chinastartmarket.cn, underscoring a clear move to bolster its CMP footprint.

While the transaction remains at a preliminary stage, with valuation and pricing yet to be finalized, the report highlights its strategic logic. AMEC’s core portfolio centers on plasma etching and thin-film deposition, both vacuum-based dry-process tools, whereas Sizone focuses on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), a cornerstone of wet-process equipment.

This marks a major step for AMEC toward becoming a platform-based semiconductor equipment leader. Sina reports that Chairman and CEO Gerald Yin told China Securities Journal the company currently covers about 30% of front-end IC equipment. Over the next five to ten years, Yin said, AMEC and its partners aim to expand to over 60% of the high-end IC market, with a goal of joining the global leaders in scale, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction by 2035.

CMP Emerges as a Key Focus in China’s Semiconductor Push

Notably, chinasmarket.cn points out that CMP equipment has been included in China’s Guidance Catalogue for the Promotion and Application of the First Set of Major Technical Equipment, with policy incentives—such as a 10-year corporate income tax exemption for sub-28nm nodes—spurring industry investment.

As logic chips move into the 3nm era, CMP process steps are increasing sharply, lifting CMP’s share of semiconductor equipment spending from 5–8% to over 12% and making it a key component of fab capex, the report adds.

Thus, by bringing CMP into its lineup, the proposed deal is expected to unlock meaningful strategic synergies and further aligns with AMEC’s strategy of pairing organic growth with targeted M&A to broaden its reach across the integrated circuit value chain.

According to Sizone’s website, the company, founded in 2018, is a high-end chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) equipment provider founded in 2018. Security Times notes that its main products are 12-inch CMP systems.

AMEC itself is riding a wave of momentum as China accelerates its drive to localize semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Securities Times reports that AMEC’s plasma etching tools are already powering state-of-the-art IC fabrication lines for leading global clients, as well as advanced memory and packaging production lines. Its lineup—including high-energy CCP (capacitive) and low-energy ICP (inductive) plasma etchers—now addresses more than 95% of etching applications across China, the report notes.

Financial filings cited by chinasmarket.cn show AMEC generated RMB 8.063 billion in revenue in the first three quarters of 2025, up 46.40% year on year, with net profit attributable to shareholders rising 32.66% to RMB 1.211 billion. Third-quarter revenue grew 50.62% to RMB 3.102 billion, while net profit increased 27.50% to RMB 505 million.

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(Photo credit: AMEC)