ACM Research - Q4 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ACM Research fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, we are recording today's call. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I will turn the call over to Mr. Steven Pelayo, Managing Director of The Blueshirt Group. Steven, please go ahead.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 results, which we released before the U.S. market opened today. The release is available on our website as well as from Newswire Services. There's also a supplemental slide deck posted to the investor relations section of our website that we will reference during our prepared remarks.

On the call with me today are our CEO, Dr. David Wang, our CFO, Mark McKechnie, and Lisa Feng, our CFO of our operating subsidiary, ACM Shanghai. Before we continue, please turn to slide two. Let me remind you that remarks made during this call may include predictions, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements represent ACM's current judgment for the future. However, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Those risks are described under the risk factors and elsewhere in ACM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect ACM's opinions only as of the date of this call. ACM is not obliged to update you on any revisions to these forward-looking statements.

Certain financial results that we provide on this call will be on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and unrealized gain or loss on short-term investments. For our GAAP results and reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP amounts, you should refer to our earnings release, which is posted on the IR section of our website, and to slides 14 and 15. Also, unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025, and comparisons are gonna be with the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024.

I will now turn the call over to David Wang. David?

David Wang (CEO)

Thanks, Steven, hello, everyone, and welcome to ACM's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. I'm pleased with our fourth quarter results, which capped off a solid year of execution. Revenue grew 9% in the fourth quarter and 15% for the full year. We continue to execute well across our core business. We made a lot of progress with new product platforms, we strengthen our position in China and globally.

Investment in AI and data center infrastructure is reshaping the global semiconductor demand, shifting capital toward advanced logic, memory, and advanced packaging. The industry is looking to key supplier for new technology, many of which have not yet been invented. ACM differentiated technology portfolio has been aligned well with this high-value process steps. Now the market is coming for us for solutions.

A good demonstration is recent momentum with several key global customer outside the mainland China market that we announced in today's press release. First, we announced that we have delivered multiple single wafer cleaning tools to Singapore facility of our Asia-based foundries customer. This marks ACM's first tool installation to Singapore, a key milestone for ACM. Second, we announced that we are receiving multiple orders for our advanced packaging tool from three global customers.

This include the orders for multiple wafer-level advanced packaging system from a leading global OSAT customer based in Singapore, with the delivers scheduled for the first quarter of 2026. A panel-level advanced packaging vacuum cleaning tool from a leading global semiconductor packaging manufacturer based outside mainland China, also scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2026.

Multiple wafer-level packaging system from a leading North America-based technology customer, with delivery scheduled later this year. Now on to our business result. Please turn to slide 3. For the fourth quarter of 2025, we deliver $244 million in revenue, up 9%. For the year 2025, we deliver $901 million in revenue, up 15%. Top-line growth of 15% was better than growth for the overall China WFE market, which third party estimate as generally flat for 2025. We consider this good result, especially since our 2025 revenue include very little contribution from our new products.

We expect a strong product cycle in 2026 from SPM cleaning and our furnace product, as we made a very good technical progress for this new product across our customer base. We also made a good progress with our supercritical CO2 dry track, panel level plating, and PECVD, which we expect to contribute some more in 2026, but more in 2027 and beyond. Shipment for 2025 were $854 million versus $973 million. 2024 shipment increased 63% over the year, so we had a tough compare. We also had some shipment for new product pushed into 2026. Importantly, we expect the 2026 shipment growth to be higher than our 2026 revenue growth.

Growth margin was 41% for the fourth quarter and 44.5% for the full year. Q4 growth margin was slightly below our long-term target range of 42%-48%. We attribute the Q4 level to product mixing, including a few semi-critical product with a lower margin due to the competitive pressure, and also higher seasonal inventory provisions. We expect our lower growth margin to be temporary. We believe our new product ramp, combined with the product design and the supply chain initiative, will enable us to deliver the best product at a low cost. There's no changing to our long-term target model range of 42%-48%. Moving on. We ended the year with a net cash of $845 million, versus $259 million at the year end of 2024.

This balance sheet provides the foundation to continue our effort to develop world-class tools for the leading global semiconductor manufacturers. Before I review our product, I will provide our view on competitive dynamics in China and how we will win in this environment. We have recently seen a flood of new local entrants to the China capital equipment industry. In many case, there are 5 or more player going after a single point product, all with very similar design and performance.

We believe we will compete and win in China market because, number one, we have a differential technology with many product, almost the best in the world. Two, we have a deep portfolio of IP with strong protection in China. Three, our local customer demand the best technology in order to compete in the global markets. Now, I will provide detail on product.

Please turn to slide four. Revenue from single wafer cleaning, Tahoe, and semi-critical cleaning tool was $626 million, up 8% in 2025, and represent 69% of total revenue. We now estimate our cleaning portfolio addresses 95% of the application and process step, we are working on developing remaining solution that will bring us to 100% in 2026. We believe ACM now has the widest coverage of cleaning tool, far more extensive as compared to all competitors.

The 8% year-over-year growth in 2025 included very little contribution from our newer cleaning line. We expect this new product, including single wafer SPM, Tahoe, and N2 bubbling wet etch, to contribute more meaningfully to our 2026 revenue. As the industry moves to more advanced nodes, we expect increased demand for high performance cleaning tools.

The increased adoption of multiple patterning is driving higher layer counts, potentially impact yields, and it demand more cleaning steps with a higher cleaning efficiency. We believe this plays right into ACM's strengths. For example, our proprietary N2 bubbling etching technology is uniquely positioned in the market. We are seeing growth, interest for advanced 3D NAND application, where larger bubble size and the uniformity control will become more critical as the industry moves to 300 layer and above.

In SPM cleaning, customer are recognized advantage of our proprietary nozzle and the chamber design. We believe our platform outperforming leading competitors in small particle cleaning performance. We made a significant technical progress at the end of 2025 with our new SPM nozzle design. We achieved a 3 nanoparticle size count of under 20, which we believe is the best-in-class performance for the industry.

Our unique nozzle design does not require any routine chamber DI water cleaning. This is a big deal for customer because it not only deliver the better cleaning environment for the chamber, but it also increase uptime of our equipment. As a result, I'm pleased to report today that we have received a strong repeat order for our SPM cleaning tools from major customer for delivering to modular fab in 2026.

We are also seeing very strong interest for our unique SPM technology from numerous global customer because they are not satisfied with the performance of their current plan of the record tool. Our supercritical CO2 dry tool integrate ACM proprietary cleaning IP, while reducing CO2 consumption by approximately 40% as compared to their competitors. This result in process efficiency with lower operating cost. We made a successful in-house-...

demo for the multiple logic and the memory customer at the end of 2025. We have already received a demo PO for evaluation tools from two customer for delivery in middle of 2026, we expect to deliver additional tools to multiple customer later this year. In mainland China alone, we estimate the incremental market opportunity for this next generation cleaning product is nearly $1 billion.

We remain confident in our long-term objective to achieve approximately 60% of the market share in China cleaning market, we expect the cleaning to outgrow the China WFE this year and in the year ahead. We estimate our market share for ECP in China is now more than 40%, we remain confident in our long-term goal to achieve 60% or more.

Front-end tool was represent about 70% of the mixing for year, including our MAP Plus, Ultra ECP 3d, Ultra ECP GIII products. ECP back-end tool were about 30% of the mix, including our Ultra ECP ap product line. In Q4, we delivered our first Ultra ECP ap-p horizontal panel level electroplating tool to an industry-leading large panel fabrication customer. Our customer prefer, ACM prefer, horizontal plating solution versus competitive vertical plating approach, due to the much better plating film uniformity and much less cross-contamination between multiple plating chemicals.

We expect a growing customer interest in our panel-level solution as the industry looks for higher throughput and low cost to support advanced packaging solution for multiple large die sites and HBM, AI chips. As discussed earlier, we received order from three global customer for both wafer level and the panel level packaging tools.

Our furnace tool are under various stage of evaluation on many customer. Revenue from furnace was relatively small in 2025, and we expect a more meaningful contribution in 2026. We made several technical breakthrough for LPCVD and ALD and PALD in 2025. We see good demand across multiple application, including high temperature anneal, especially 1,350 degrees version, LPCVD, ALD, and PALD.

We believe ACM differential design position us to capture meaningful market share. Revenue from advanced packaging, which is good ECP, but including service and the spare, was up 45% in 2025 to $76 million, and represent 8% of revenue. This includes coater, developer, etcher, stripper, scrubber, and vacuum cleaning tools.

We believe ACM is only company to offer a full portfolio of wet process tool and world-class plating product for the advanced packaging. We think the combination is very powerful. It provide ACM with valuable insight into the challenging of next-generation packaging as AI drives industry towards 2.5D and 3D integration. We are making solid progress with our new track on the PECVD platforms.

Last September, we delivered our high-throughput, 300 WPH KrF track tool for evaluation at a key customer. We expect a mass production qualification in 2026 for the tool, and we anticipate this will lead to demand from additional customers, including both standalone and full integrated system, in line with the lithography tool. We believe our high-throughput design positions this platform to compete effectively with the current supplier.

In Q4, we delivered our first Ultra Lith BK system. This milestone represent the first customer deploy of our track series, following early demonstration and the validation. It also marked our entry into the display panel market, a new segment that require high volume manufacturing and strong performance stability.

We anticipate to develop our proprietary PECVD platform. Our design has three chuck per chamber, which we believe is the only one in the world. This provides flexibility for a wide range of our process with the same hardware. We feel good about our positioning as the team works through the technical detail with a field tool in our Lingang mini lab, running wafer tests and a custom demo wafer. We expect to ship multiple EVA tools in the near term.

In summary, our innovation engine contribute to drive differentiated solution across a broad of our growing portfolio. AI drives a more complex semiconductor process, customer are turning to ACM as a trusted partner to help solving their increasing challenges. Let me provide update on our production facility. Our Lingang. Please turn to slide eight. Our Lingang Production and R&D Center is now our primary production center.

The first building is in volume production, and the second provides capacity for the future expansion. Together, the two facility can support up to $3 billion in annual output. During 2025, we made a good progress on our mini line and Ningbo. We have enhanced our process development capability and now support on-site customer evaluation in fab-like conditions. Our mini line, including ACM tools and tools from other player and metrology tools.

We believe the mini line will accelerate our internal product validation, shorten R&D and qualification cycle, and strengthen collaboration with the key customer as we introduce next-generation platforms. Our Oregon facility. Please turn to slide nine. We are accelerating investment in Oregon, with the operation expected to beginning in the second half of 2026.

This facility will allow customers to evaluate our technology and to test their wafer locally, and it will serve as our initial base for production in the United States. Our global customer are encouraged by our commitment, which we believe will help them to choose ACM as a key supplier to scale production. We remain very pleased by the success of ACM Shanghai team, which continue to be a key supplier to the semiconductor industry in Asia.

ACM Shanghai has also proven to be a great source of capital and financial flexibility for ACM. In September 2025, ACM Shanghai completed a private offering of ordinary share, generating approximately $623 million in net proceeds. In February 2026, we completed the sale of approximately 4.8 million ACM Shanghai shares at RMB, at the 160 RMB per share, generating approximately $111 million in gross proceeds. ACM Shanghai also has been a good source of dividends in 2023, 2024, and 2025. We received dividends net of tax of $19.2 million, $28.5 million, and $29 million, respectively. Our major ownership in Shanghai, ACM Shanghai, remain a strategic asset.

It enhanced our financial flexibility and supporting disciplined execution as we continue expanding globally. Taken together, our expanding product portfolio, increased manufacturing capacity, and a strengthening capital position give us confidence in our long-term strategy. Turn to our outlook for the full year 2026. Please turn to slide 10. In middle January, we introduced our 2026 revenue outlook in a range of $1.08 billion-$1.175 billion.

This implies 25% year-over-year growth at the middle point. We reiterate this outlook today. Since our founding in California in 1998, and the establishment of ACM Shanghai in 2005, we're building a globally competitive semiconductor equipment company, grounded in innovation and differential technology.

Our leadership in cleaning and electroplating created a strong foundation, and we are now expanding across furnace, track, and PECVD as we broaden our multiple product portfolio. In Asia, we are recognized as a leader in wafer cleaning and plating, and we are engaging with a global customer across U.S. and Europe.

With continued progress across SPM, Tahoe, supercritical CO2 dry, furnace, track, PECVD, and panel-level packaging, we believe we are entering a new phase of a product cycle that will driving substandard growth. We have the customer, the product, the capacity, and the capital to execute our global business plan, and we remain committed to our long-term target of $4 billion in revenue. Now let me turn the call over to our CFO Mark, who will review details of our first quarter and full year results. Mark, please.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Thank you, David. Good day, everyone. Please turn to slide 11 and 12. Unless I note otherwise, I'll refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude stock-based compensation, unrealized gain loss on short-term investments. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release.

Unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, and comparisons are with the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. I will now provide financial highlights. Revenue was $244 million for the fourth quarter, up 9.4%. For the full year, revenue is $901.3 million, up 15.2%. Full year revenue was in line with our original guidance set a year ago and slightly above the updated range announced on January 22nd.

Fourth quarter revenue for single wafer cleaning, Tahoe, and semi-critical cleaning was $159.9 million, up 3%. For the year, this category grew by 8.1%. Fourth quarter revenue for ECP, front-end packaging, furnace, and other technologies was $64.1 million, up 23.9%. For the year, this category grew by 32.1%.

Fourth quarter revenue for advanced packaging, excluding ECP, services, and spares, was $20.5 million, up 23.8%. For the year, this category grew by 45.3%. I will now provide revenue mix by customer type for 2025. Starting this year, rather than disclosing specific customer names, we are now disclosing revenue by customer type once a year. For each customer type, this includes products, services, and spare parts.

We've included the mix table on slide seven of our presentation. For 2025, our revenue mix by customer type was split among foundry, logic, and other 59%, memory 27%, packaging and wafer processing 14%. 2025, we had four, 10+% customers, including our top customer was 16.9%, next was 13.5%, then 11.6%, and 10.2%, for an aggregate total of four customers representing 52.2% of total sales. For 2024, we had four, 10% customer, also for a total of 52.2%. Total shipments were $228 million for the fourth quarter, down 13.5%, and $854 million for the full year of 2025, down 12.2%.

David noted we had a tough compare versus a strong 2024, when shipments increased 63% year-over-year. We also did have some shipments for new products pushed into 2026. We expect 2026 shipment growth rate to be higher than our 2026 revenue growth rate. Gross margin was 41.0% for the fourth quarter, and 49.8%. For the full year, gross margin was 44.5% versus 50.4% in 2024. Q4 gross margin was slightly below our long-term target model. Adding to David's earlier remarks, gross margins were down 8.8 percentage points year-over-year on a quarterly basis.

This was due to product mix and margin pressure concentrated in a few semi-critical products, which contributed about 5 points of the headwind, and a higher level of inventory provisions that contributed about 4%, 4 points negative impact. As David noted, we expect the lower gross margins to be temporary.

We believe our new product ramp, combined with supply chain initiatives, will enable us to deliver the best products at a low cost, and there is no change to our long-term target model range of 42%-48%. For modeling purposes, we expect gross margins to be at the lower end of this longer-term target range for the first half of 2026, with an anticipated lift in the second half, due in part to contribution from newer products, which generally have higher gross margins.

Operating expenses were $70.6 million for the fourth quarter, up 21%. For the full year, operating expenses were $258.4 million, up 34%. For 2025, R&D was 15.1% of sales and marketing was 7.8% of sales, and G&A was 5.8% of sales. For 2026, we plan for R&D in the 16%-18% range, sales and marketing in the 7%-8% range, and G&A in the 6% range. Operating income was $29.5 million for the fourth quarter versus $52.8 million. Operating margin for Q4 2025 was 12.1% as compared to 23.6%. For the full year, operating margin was 15.9% as compared to 25.6%.

Long term, we look to grow our R&D spending in line with revenue, but we expect to show operating leverage in SG&A, with spending growth below our revenue growth level. Income tax expense was $6.6 million for the fourth quarter versus $17.3 million. For the full year, income tax expense was $13.3 million versus $35 million in 2024. For 2026, we expect our effective tax rate in the 8%-10% range. Net income attributable to ACM Research was $17.3 million for the fourth quarter versus $37.7 million. For the full year, net income attributable to ACM Research was $110.2 million versus $152.2 million. Net income for diluted share was $0.25 for the fourth quarter versus $0.56.

For the full year, net income per diluted share was $1.61 versus $2.26. Our non-GAAP net income excluded $6.4 million of stock-based compensation expense for the fourth quarter and $33.6 million for the full year. I will now review selected balance sheet and cash flow items. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and time deposits were $1.13 billion versus $441 million at year-end 2024. Net cash, which excludes short-term and long-term debt, was $845.5 million versus $259.1 million at year-end 2024. $585.4 million increase in net cash for 2025 included $623 million net raised in the private offering by ACM Shanghai in 2025.

Total inventory at year-end was $702.6 million versus $676.4 million at the end of the third quarter. Raw materials were $349.7 million, up $23.5 million quarter-over-quarter. We made additional strategic purchases to support production plans and to mitigate any potential supply chain risk. Work in process was $61.4 million, up $1.9 million quarter-over-quarter. Finished goods inventory was $291.6 million, up $0.9 million quarter-over-quarter. Finished goods inventory primarily consists of first tools under evaluation at our customer sites, along with finished goods located at ACM's facilities. Cash provided by operations was $33.9 million for the fourth quarter. For the full year, cash 2025, cash used by operations was about $10 million.

CapEx were $58 million for the full year 2025. For the full year 2026, we expect to spend about $200 million in CapEx. This includes continued investments in Lingang, including the mini-line and the second production facility, fixed assets for the business and investments in Oregon, along with other items. That concludes our prepared remarks. Let's open the call for any questions that you may have. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. One moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question will come from the line of Charles Shi with Needham and Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Charles Shi (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Hi, thanks for taking my question. I believe you gave a pretty good color on shipment versus revenue growth this year. Have a question since you mentioned about new products, probably gonna be a bigger driver this year for growth, and wondering if you can give some color, let's say, excluding the new products, what's the growth, either shipment or revenue, is expected to be, excluding all the new products, for the... I think maybe I'm talking about the existing product lines in cleans, plating, et cetera? Thank you.

David Wang (CEO)

Okay. Okay, thank you, Charles. Actually, you know, that is, we, as we said, we made quite a big progress, right, in the SPM process. In general, speaking, SPM, color SPM, represent 25%-30% of the cleaning market. This market, in the last couple of years, were not much touched so much. As I said, last 2025, we made a very good progress, and both into their special module design for the high temperature and also a powerful product. We're getting to very aggressively into this market. Again, this is a very high high margin product, and also a lot of our customer, both, you know, in the mainland China, also outside China, they have suffered a particle issue with this high temperature SPM process.

With, we think with our proprietary design model, we can control a very good environment, so therefore, can be, you know, really reduce particle size. That can be really enhance our market growth in cleaning. Secondly, I want to say that is our N2 bubbling proprietary bubbling wet etch technology is really critical for the 3D NAND sitting in nitric etching process, which we believe our proprietary technology not only cover today's demand for 300 layer, we believe as people move into 400 or even 500 layer, will suffer this kind of uniformity of the via top or via bottom, right? We're using large bubble and size. With our proprietary technology, we can make a very uniform and large bubble distribution in a tank.

That will be really enhance the etching uniformity and from the top to the bottom for the via. We believe that's not only, you know, demand in the, in the market in China, we also see that demand outside the global market, too. Third one, I also mentioned that is our supercritical CO2 dry. We also made a lot of progress, right?

Which is the, you know, past customer demo. We have two tools, you know, scheduled to be delivered, you know, in the, in the first or second quarter of this year. We have additional interest in coming in. Since the supercritical CO2, with our provided design, we got a capacity or cavity, our CO2 chamber is about 40% smaller. We believe that we're really providing customer a 40% reduction of the consumable cost.

That really also, again, right, driving this product not in a, in a, in a local, I call it China market, but also getting to the outside China market. With all this cleaning, I call the together, we believe all the expansion in the future, this will probably represent, even China, almost a billion-dollar market potential for us to get in. We're still very, you know, exciting about our continued expanding our cleaning product, you know, in the, in the China market. Plus, also give us a really strong differential technology exposure to global market. Right? That's for cleaning.

Again, for copper plating, as I mentioned, you know, we have a full set of the cleaning product, you know, front end, TSV, back end, advanced packaging, including also, you know, this I call the compound semiconductor. Recent, we just, you know, announced our panel, horizontal plating, which we believe very, very key technology to driving for the panel size plating. This moment, everybody using vertical and copper plating for panel. We're the first one in the world so far doing horizontal plating, right? With our differential technology, we believe probably, most likely, we're the only one in the market to drive another horizontal copper plating.

This is also we see the bigger interest, you know, not only in the China market, we see also a lot of interest, you know, coming in for us to deliver, you know, this tool. With that, all new product, you know, our existing cleaning copper plating can drive a lot of revenue this year, including next year, right? Plus, as I said, we, our other furnace and PECVD and also track business, we're developing for last four or five years, really made a lot of technological breakthrough, too. Believe those technology getting this year, start getting market and we're real sustaining our next three to five years growth.

Which you know that last, four year, four year, our major growth is come from cleaning the copper plating. Next few year, we see this new product coming in, will definitely strengthening our high growth profile in next few years. We're very, you know, exciting, very, you know, try to, as execution our strategy, to continue to grow our, our revenue. Charles?

Charles Shi (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Thanks, David. Maybe a question on profitability. You reported the last year, you gave some color about this year, but I believe if my math is right, your operating margin will compress the last year from maybe close to 26% in 2024 to 16% in 2025. This year, based on your what you guided about growth margin, what you guided about R&D, SG&A, doesn't look like operating margin can rebound.

Feels like operating margin probably more or less the same, or even coming down a little bit, depending on how the growth margin trends for the remainder of the year. Want to get some sense how what's the reason for operating margin being under pressure for almost two years? How do you plan to address this and maybe try to expand the operating margin from here? Thank you.

David Wang (CEO)

Yeah, actually, let's this way, you know, looking at gross margin, right? We are the probably top of the equipment company in China, right, for gross margin, right, the last few year. As you said, Q4 of our, especially Q4 last year, we do see our, you know, first time our gross margin is, you know, lower than our range, 40%-48%, right? As explaining, maybe three factor, one is the product mixing. We have, you know, one or two product, which is a semi-critical tool, do have a, you know, pressure from the competitor for pricing, you know, there. The next one is really our, you know, this inventory provision.

We think this year, as we are new product coming in, as I mentioned, this, you know, three cleaning product coming in, will definitely enhance our margin. Also our inventory provision, we believe, will be also greatly reduced too. With that, we still have a confidence we're in a 40%-48%, you know, growth margin in this year or beyond. More than that is, as you said, we put quite a bit of R&D last year, right? It used to be R&D, 13%, 14%. This last year, we're getting to 16%. We're probably will keep that number and in a way. Why? You know, the next few year, AI is driving a lot of demand for the new technology.

Everybody, you know, else, you know, first-tier company, you know, in outside China, all people put a lot of R&D. We'll continue to invest that, which we know will impact a little bit, you know, our operation margin, but it's worth to spend the money now. Why? I said opportunity is there, right? A lot of customer real demand for the new technology, which I believe a lot of AI technology today, even not invented yet.

It's really give ACM good opportunity with our I call it our innovation, you know, power, our defense technology, development capability. We can use this AI as a trend. We'll catch a lot of our new technology and also catch the customer. This around the place is one good example, for example, right? Again, it's worth to spend more R&D, even get a few % of the operation margin lower, which is real long run, and we're working for the investor interest and also the growth ACM, you know, market and into the next few years.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yeah. Hey, David, I might add a few things. I think that was a good overview. Charles Shi, I think, kind of summarizing it up, you know, we're spending into the $4 billion market opportunity. You know, there's a number of products that, areas that, we've been investing in that haven't scaled yet, but we expect them to scale over the next few years. It's the right thing to do to spend into that. You're right about the operating margin for 2026, kind of comes in at the mid-teen level, you know, similar to what it was here in 2025.

You know, you move out a few years, we, you know, our target is to keep those gross margins at that target range, and then, you know, grow our top line faster than our OpEx. I think you can see some leverage in the out years.

Charles Shi (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yep. Thanks, Charles.

David Wang (CEO)

Thank you, Charles.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Edison Lee with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Edison Lee (Head of China/HK Tech, Telecom, and Software Research and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hi, David and Mark. Congratulations on the results. I just have two quick questions. Number one is that for the fourth quarter, the margin is a little bit low, and the revenue growth also is a little bit slow, and then your shipment, I think, declined for on a year-on-year basis. How much of that is just product mix and seasonality, and when you think these numbers will actually start improving in 2026? The second question is about the $111 billion you raised by selling down ACMS. Can you shed some light as to how you would actually utilize that proceeds?

David Wang (CEO)

Okay, let's answer your first question, right? I think that you looking there, as I mentioned last couple of year, our major growth engine from cleaning and also copper plating, right? Even the cleaning, I said, there's one important product, which is SPM process, we're not touched too much. As I mentioned last year, you know, end of last year, you know, Q4 last year, we made a significant progress with this, you know, special novel design. We believe our performance is outperforming and they're, you know, top tier as a tool. We see that grow more continuously, right? I would say our cleaning, copper plating, and also horizontal panel continue to expand it too. That will keep the momentum.

Our cleaning market, you know, probably today in China, about 35 range, we're expanding to 50%-60%, you know, next few year. The copper right now, the 40, I still say we're trying to catch 60 and beyond mark in China. More than that is those product, different product, we see the very high interest from global, you know, top-tier customer. That's what we also reinforce ourselves outside China.

That's why I see the, you know, impact our, or as boost our revenue, you know, for our existing product. Also I want to see that in through the last five year, we are really working with differentiator, you know, PECVD and track, and then also furnace technology, which, you know, we believe a lot of our new technology we're putting in, and nobody had it before, right?

That's what reinforce our, I call the market position. Plus, those tool, it really, with our differential technology, we put a lot of time to develop IP, develop the roadmap. It cost a little long time than, you know, the other guys. Now it's come the moment to the market. Plus, I want to see another bigger impact is, I call the improvement, is last Q3, we start using Ningdong mini line, which we do not have it before. That was really helping our internal demonstration, internal R&D and speed. We see the bigger, you know, impact already. That will be helping our tool mature before ship the customer.

With all together, I want to say, you know, this is a new growth, and from the existing and also our new product coming in, we're driving ACM in real high growth profile in the year, this year and in the next few year. We're very confident. Even I say, you know, WFE market in China is flat, whichever we can get a higher growth rate because of new product coming in. As you say, we have made a lot of progress in the global customer, you know, this news announced, you know, today. We also see a lot of interest in coming into our differential technology from top-tier customer. We have a pattern, has been, you know, locked the technology already. They almost have no choice. They have to come to us.

That's really exciting for our technology. We're really trying to pushing our, you know, technology will benefit the international global customer for their AI challenges.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yeah. Hey, David.

David Wang (CEO)

Mark, anything you want to add on that?

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yeah, let me add on to something before you answer his question about our Shanghai stock sales. Edison, for Q4, you probably remember last call, we mentioned that, you know, Q4 in the year. You know, the overall year came in at the midpoint of where we started the year, maybe a little bit better. Don't forget, we had two things. Our newer products didn't kick in very little in 2025, we did have a customer push out from Q4 into 2026. That was, you know, kind of a, those two things that hit 2024. I'm sorry, the Q4.

When you look out to 2025, you know, we're expecting linearity pretty similar to I'm sorry, 2026, we're expecting our linearity to be pretty similar. The first half will be about 42%-43% of revenue. Second half will be, you know, 57%-58%. I would kind of anticipate Q1 at about 18%-20% of the full year mix. Maybe David, if you wanted to take his question, what are we gonna do with the cash that we raised in or that we sold, you know, the cash that we sold? Yeah.

Edison Lee (Head of China/HK Tech, Telecom, and Software Research and Senior Equity Analyst)

Sorry. Sorry, Mark. Mark, can you hear me?

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yes. Yeah.

Edison Lee (Head of China/HK Tech, Telecom, and Software Research and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hey, before we move on to the use of proceeds, can you also comment a little bit on what you said about, I think some products having some pricing pressure, which I think partially account for lower margin in the fourth quarter?

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yeah. There's not much to add to what I said there. You know, we, or what David and I both said. You know, there were a couple of semi-critical products that had particularly low margins that hit us in Q3 and Q4. You know, David mentioned in the prepared remarks, he talked about the competitive situation in China. You know, we are very focused on developing world-class tools. We think that, you know, there was also a bigger provision in the back half of the year. We think that'll be the overall provision for 2026, probably be smaller than it was in 2025, and it'd probably be more balanced throughout the year. Yeah.

Edison Lee (Head of China/HK Tech, Telecom, and Software Research and Senior Equity Analyst)

Okay.

David Wang (CEO)

You want me to touch on how we're using proceeds, right?

Edison Lee (Head of China/HK Tech, Telecom, and Software Research and Senior Equity Analyst)

Yes.

David Wang (CEO)

Well, obviously, we have a second offering in China, right. Those money will be really focusing on R&D again, our expansion for their manufacturing. We have a second building where we start to, you know, decoration this year. With that add together, probably we can manufacture $3 billion annually, and which would really give us a lot of, you know, room for manufacturing.

Plus, we're also putting money in the, in the mini line. As I mentioned, this mini line really speed up our internal R&D and debugging the tool, and also even can do. We join development with the customer process, too. So it's really, you know, worth spending for this money.

The proceed we got from the, you know, so the 1.3% from Shanghai here, definitely the major purpose for that was spending global, you know, customer, global marketing sale. We see that opportunity, you know, really big in a global market. As I mentioned, we do have some differential, and technology might be the only solution for their, for their, you know, AI challenging. Those product, we think, will be really gather attention from the global customer. We have to spend money and, you know, building the international, strongly sales channel. Also, we already had a Korea manufacturer base already. However, you know, with this geographic tariff going on, we have to minimize the tariff impact, right?

That's why we start the assembly tool in the USA. That will be real, reduce our concern or any, you know, dynamic changing for those tariff impact our revenue. Anyway, that's really what we count. Our goal is very simple. We try to working with the, you know, with satisfy all regulation and, you know, requirement and maximize the investor interest. We're building a global sales, global company. That's our goal.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Okay, thank you. Thanks, Edison. Yeah, I appreciate it. Next question, please, operator.

Operator (participant)

One moment. Our next question comes from the line of Jimmy Hong with JP Morgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Hi, David. Can you hear me?

David Wang (CEO)

Yes, please.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. Congrats for the good results. I want to ask about we deliver a single wafer cleaning tools to a Singapore-based foundry. What would be the potential size of shipments in terms of units or dollars this year or next year? Next year. This is my first question.

David Wang (CEO)

Yeah, good, very good question. Actually, you know, we have a few tool or we're in the installation process right now, right? Those tool, you know, this tool will be qualified and go in production, you know, this year. With that, we definitely will introduce more of a cleaning tool. Also, we do have a copper plating in the behind. That's really what give us exposure of product, you know, in Asian market. It will be real making more of a, I call it confidence, and also get a high interest from other player in Asia, in the market, too. We see this a really bigger milestone and for us.

Plus, you know, we're not only look at a customer only in Singapore, we do have a customer in Korea, also we have customer, you know, potentially in Taiwan. We have really confidence, you know, we should have expanding quickly in Asia market. Plus, again, you know, we're also very focusing on our U.S. market, too. We do have a advanced packaging tool, PO and receiving, which will deliver by end of this year.

We see a lot of potential going on in U.S. market, too. Again, because today, all the memory or logic, they're, you know, they are AI driving for their advanced technology. ACM, you know, I want to say, I feel good technology is really needed for their production line. We believe that's very beneficial for the customer and also can help expansion our market to global. It's a great opportunity...

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah.

David Wang (CEO)

Again, in innovation is a key, and every customer and every key customer, they all demand for innovation technology, which it will perfectly fit our, you know, strategy.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thank you, Dr. Wang. For Singapore business, how's the chance that we penetrate to Singapore-based memory makers in the next few years? My second question is for advanced packaging. We are making great progress, but, you know, for Taiwan, Taiwanese foundries and also are leading the panel-level packaging for AI, GPUs and ASICs. Can we talk about our POP progress with potential Taiwanese players? Do we have any, like, order forecasts or purchase orders in from these Taiwanese potential customers? Yeah.

David Wang (CEO)

Yeah, actually, you know, we are talking to a few key customer, right? Even a panel, large size, 515 by 510, and also we're talking about their 310 by 310, right? Which is the two vision right now, people try to push in. We have very good exposure to those customer. By the way, April 7, 8, we'll have attending the panel conference in the Taiwan. In that conference, we'll do the keynote speaker about the horizontal plating and also our vacuum cleaning technology. It's really a lot of exciting, I want to say, interest coming in. Also, you know, I said, I heard everybody say panel, product or equipment, they're probably satisfy all other product except their plating. Plating become a bottleneck for their production expansion.

With that, you know, demand, I said, we are the only one supplying horizontal plating. You probably heard that is the one key player in Taiwan. They said that they only want a horizontal plating. They don't want a vertical. Our horizontal plating perfect fits their strategy or their demand. As I said, is really we see the big opportunity and, you know, with our panel product. Actually, we're not only trying to say introduce it, so far three product, right? Panel plating, vacuum cleaning, and also the bevel. We're going to be available also additional, you know, and the co-developer, wet etcher, and cleaning, all kind of, wet tool we're putting in too. That's really what we catch the real, this, wave of the panel, I call the, shift, right?

We're in a very good position and for those coming panel advanced packaging expanding. We're very excited about this opportunity, right?

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah. Do you know, like, in which kind of periods, quarters, it will be more clear that whether we'll have any order forecast or purchase orders for this POP, equipments for? Yeah.

David Wang (CEO)

Well, you know, let's put it this way, right? We're announced that we do have also PO from outside mainland China, right? I mean, we said already, you know what I mean here. We're continually expanding more, right? Again, I want to say, this year, we have a confidence, catch additional PO for our, you know, bevel, I mean, for our vacuum cleaning and also for the horizontal copper plating. Probably not only in Taiwan market.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah.

David Wang (CEO)

We also see the opportunity in Korea, also in Singapore, by the way. It's very exciting.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thank you. Maybe I can squeeze in my last question about investor FAQ. Like, ACM has disposed a small portion of stock in ACM Shanghai. How do we think about more further stock disposal in the future? You mentioned that U.S. international capacity builds will require more fundings. Will we dispose of more stocks of ACM Shanghai in the future? Yeah.

David Wang (CEO)

Repeat the question again. I'm sorry. Can you repeat again?

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

He's asking, are we gonna sell more of our ACM Shanghai?

David Wang (CEO)

I see. I see. Okay. You know, we sold 1.3% already, right? Which got a proceed, you know, about $111 million. You know, we do have a both arm to acquire this money. We can raise in U.S., we can raise in Shanghai. We're very flexible for what we were choosing, number one. This moment, I want to say our Shanghai stock is still, you know, we think it's still undervalued, okay, with our growth. We maybe consider what's the money demand and the timeline, also what's the stock price in Shanghai, will decide, you know, where or when or we should sell additional or not. Plus, as I said, we have several arm, you know, we can raise the money U.S.A. It's quite flexible for us to raise the fund.

This moment, you know, I want to say, well, obviously we'll continue investing more in global market, and we have no concern for those, you know, money, where it come from, right? We're very confident. We also have another knob, another tool, we can get the money anyway.

Jun Hong (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah. Thank you so much. It's all my questions. Thank you, Dr. Wang. I'll be back to the queue. Thank you.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

Great. Thank you.

David Wang (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Seeing no more questions in the queue, let me turn the call back over to Steven Pelayo for closing remarks.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

Okay, great. Before we conclude, I just want to give everyone a quick reminder on our upcoming investor conferences. On March ninth, we will participate virtually in Loop Capital Markets' seventh Annual Investor Conference for one-on-one meetings. On March 23rd and 24th, we will present at the 38th Annual Roth Conference in Dana Point, California. Attendance at the conference is by invitation only. For interested investors, please contact your respective sales representative to register and schedule one-on-one meetings with the management team. This concludes the call, and you may now disconnect. Take care.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect everyone. Have a great day!