Chinese Chip Equipment Maker Piotech's Net Profit Surges 1,324% in H1 2026
Nashnova编辑部
Piotech's H1 net profit jumped 1,324% to RMB 1.34 billion, with revenue up 49%, as advanced-node deposition tools entered volume production and profit leverage began to show.
Profit up thirteen-fold — real earnings or paper gains?
Net profit hit RMB 1.34 billion, up 1,324% year-on-year. But roughly RMB 960 million came from fair-value gains on trading financial assets — in plain terms = the company's financial investments rose and the paper gain flowed into reported profit.
Strip those out: adjusted net profit was still RMB 367 million, up 862%. This means → even without the one-off windfall, underlying profitability improved sharply.
Gross margin climbed about 9 percentage points to 41%, adding roughly RMB 570 million in gross profit. Operating costs grew just 29%, well below the 49% revenue growth. In plain terms = Piotech sold more, earned more per unit, and spent less per unit — scale economics are kicking in.
Advanced-node tools — what sold, and to whom?
The core product is PECVD — plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, a tool that deposits thin films onto chip surfaces. PECVD Stack systems for ONO multilayer structures and the ACHM series have entered volume shipment and passed customer qualification.
ALD tools — atomic layer deposition, a technique that deposits material one atomic layer at a time — won repeat orders in advanced memory. This means → customers moved from trial to production-line standard, a critical threshold.
The product line now spans advanced memory, advanced logic, mature logic, advanced packaging, and power devices. Cumulative chamber shipments exceed 3,800; customer fabs have processed roughly 600 million wafers on Piotech systems.
3D integration equipment — why call it a second growth curve?
Piotech is expanding into hybrid bonding tools — hybrid bonding joins two chips face-to-face in a single step and is the key process in advanced packaging. The lineup covers wafer-to-wafer and chip-to-wafer bonding, plus post-bond void-repair tools under development.
This reflects a broader industry shift: as single-chip process nodes approach physical limits, stacking multiple chips becomes the main path to higher performance. The companies making stacking equipment sit at the center of that trend.
The Shenyang Phase-II factory has topped out at over 150,000 square meters and is expected to begin operations in 2028. This means → Piotech is building capacity ahead of order ramp, not after.
Can R&D spending and backlog sustain the momentum?
H1 R&D spending reached RMB 423 million, or 14.5% of revenue. R&D staff numbered 856, accounting for 42% of the workforce. Cumulative patent filings stand at 2,245.
Management said the order backlog is sufficient to support full-year deliveries. Average system uptime exceeds 90%, signaling stable field performance.
The company also proposed an interim cash dividend of RMB 3.50 per 10 shares, totaling roughly RMB 101 million. In plain terms = Piotech feels cash-rich enough to fund R&D and pay shareholders at the same time — itself a confidence signal.
What to watch in H2?
Whether adjusted net profit can sustain the 862% growth pace is the key test of whether volume ramp translates into durable earnings. If gross margin holds above 40% in H2, the thesis stands.
The RMB 960 million financial-asset gain is non-recurring. Headline profit growth will almost certainly slow, but the market cares more about the adjusted-profit trend.
This reflects a larger judgment call: China's semiconductor-equipment localization is shifting from "can the tools work?" to "can the tools make money?" Piotech's profit leverage is a snapshot of that inflection point.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.