Hua Hong Semiconductor Signs Agreements with Four Domestic Equipment Suppliers, Discloses 2030 Specialty Process Market Share Targets
nashnova research
Hua Hong Group signed strategic agreements with four Chinese equipment firms covering core front-end processes; Chairman Bai Peng disclosed 2030 market-share targets for four specialty nodes — the latest move in China's push to localize its wafer-fabrication supply chain.
What did Hua Hong sign, and with whom?
On October 12 at the inaugural China Integrated Circuit Expo in Shanghai, Hua Hong Group signed strategic cooperation agreements with NAURA Technology, AMEC, ACM Research Shanghai, and Hwatsing Technology.
The deals cover four key front-end process steps: thin-film deposition, etching, wafer cleaning, and chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP). This means → from coating to polishing, Hua Hong has lined up domestic suppliers for most major front-end operations.
In plain terms = making a chip requires multiple processing stages, and Hua Hong just locked in Chinese companies as equipment partners for four of the most critical ones.
How aggressive are Hua Hong's 2030 targets?
Chairman Bai Peng disclosed 2030 global market-share targets for four specialty processes: embedded flash (eFlash — memory built directly into a chip) at 30%, SPI NOR flash (small-capacity serial-interface storage chips) at 50%, BCD power devices (a process integrating three transistor types for power management) at 20%, and CMOS image sensors (CIS — the light-sensing chips in phones and cars) at 35%.
This reflects a strategy that does not chase leading-edge logic nodes but aims for share leadership in specialty processes.
Bai also forecast that Chinese specialty foundry average selling prices as a ratio of the global average will rise from 66% in 2024 to 76% by 2030, with domestic supply exceeding 40% across specialty segments. This means → Hua Hong wants volume *and* a ten-percentage-point narrowing of the price gap.
What does each equipment maker bring?
NAURA Technology: supplies multiple types of wafer-processing equipment — the broadest coverage among the four.
AMEC: focused on etching — using plasma to carve circuit patterns onto chips; Chairman Yin Zhiyao noted AMEC has expanded from a pure etch specialist into a broader equipment platform, now developing 54 categories of advanced semiconductor tools.
ACM Research Shanghai: specializes in wafer cleaning; Hwatsing Technology: develops CMP systems — equipment that polishes chip surfaces flat.
Does a signed agreement mean the equipment will actually be adopted?
A strategic agreement ≠ a volume purchase order. Procurement volumes, fab-line deployment, and revenue contributions remain uncertain.
Whether the equipment truly enters production lines depends on reliability, process stability, yield, utilization, and long-term serviceability in a mass-production environment. In plain terms = passing a lab test and running 24/7 in a factory are two very different things.
AMEC Chairman Yin Zhiyao also warned that semiconductor capex has historically swung with demand cycles, that AI-infrastructure investment carries bubble risk, and that innovation and IP protection matter more than simply expanding capacity.
What is the bigger picture here?
The agreements align with Shanghai's 15th Five-Year Plan for new industrialization, released in July 2026, which lists integrated-circuit supply-chain breakthroughs as a priority and anchors the effort around the Zhangjiang, Lingang, and Jiading clusters.
Bai Peng stressed that Chinese specialty foundries should compete on technology and cost optimization, not on price wars.
This signals a broader shift: China's wafer manufacturing is moving from "can we do it?" to "can we do it reliably at scale?" — and the 2030 market-share targets will ultimately be validated by how domestic equipment actually performs on production lines.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。