GoKawiilApplied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA booked a combined $19 billion in China revenue across their fiscal 2025 reporting periods, according to a recent Nikkei Asia analysis of corporate filings, even as direct U.S.-to-China tool shipments fell 34% to roughly $2 billion, the lowest figure since 2017.
The gap moved through Singapore and Malaysia, where all three firms have spent years building out manufacturing capacity. At the same time, every major Chinese wafer-fab-equipment vendor posted record 2025 revenues, but gross margins contracted across the board as domestic vendors competed on price for fab share previously held by foreign suppliers.
Domestic vendor financials
Naura Technology Group, China's broadest equipment supplier by product line, reported first-nine-months 2025 revenue of 27.14 billion yuan, up from 6.05 billion yuan ($887 million) for all of 2020, per Nikkei's analysis of company filings. Gross margin slipped 2.8 percentage points year over year to 41.4%, and net margin contracted by nearly four points.
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AMEC delivered full-year 2025 revenue of 12.4 billion yuan, up 36.6% from 2024, but gross margin fell 1.9 points to 39.2%. In Q3 alone, AMEC's margin dropped 5.8 points. Piotech, a thin-film deposition specialist, nearly doubled revenue to 4.2 billion yuan in the first nine months, but first-half net income fell 27% as the company absorbed high costs from new products still in customer validation, per its interim filing.
ACM Research, the U.S.-listed company that conducts most of its operations through its Shanghai subsidiary, posted 2025 revenue of $901 million, a 15% increase, but gross margin fell 5.7 points to 44.4%, and operating margin collapsed from 19.3% to 12.1%. Q4 gross margin of 41% landed below the company's own 42% to 48% long-term target band.
"While leading domestic equipment companies are still posting strong revenue growth, there are indications that their margin performance is deteriorating," Charles Shi, a veteran semiconductor analyst with Needham & Co., told Nikkei Asia. Shi attributed the squeeze to domestic vendors undercutting each other for business at Chinese fabs that were previously served by foreign suppliers.
U.S. vendor China revenue
As for the revenue figures from U.S. equipment makers, it’s clear that export controls haven’t completely severed commercial relationships with China.
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