 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Founded | 1998; 27 years ago (1998) |
| Founder | David Wang |
| Headquarters | Fremont,California, U.S. |
Key people | David Wang (chairman &CEO) |
| Revenue |  US$557.72 million (2023) |
| US$96.85 million (2023) | |
| Total assets | US$1.49 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$926.16 million (2023) |
Number of employees | 1,590 (2023) |
| Subsidiaries | ACM Research (Shanghai), Inc. |
| Website | acmr |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
ACM Research, Inc. (ACMR) is apublicly traded Americansemiconductor company that engages in the manufacture and sale of single-wafer wet cleaning equipment used to improve product yield.
Although based in the U.S., the majority of the company's business is done inChina through its subsidiary, ACM Research (Shanghai).
ACMR was founded in silicon valley in 1998 by David Wang. Wang is credited with inventing stress-free copper polishing technology.[2][3]
Initially the tools were position as a competitor tochemical metal planarization but did not find any success. Due to strong backing, ACMR pivoted and shifted focus to wafer cleaning by carving out a niche.[3]
In 2005, ACMR andShanghai Venture Capital Co. established ajoint venture inShanghai named ACM Research (Shanghai). It would become majority owned by ACMR and all major operations were eventually moved to China.[2][3][4][5]
The first major customer for ACMR wasSK Hynix who started placing orders for its cleaning tools in 2013.[3] ACM's proprietary technology, Space Alternated Phase Shift (SAPS) has been shown to be more effective at removing random defects on wafers than jet spray or conventionalmegasonic cleaning technologies.[5]
In November 2017, ACMR held itsinitial public offering and became a publicly listed company on theNasdaq exchange.[3][4][6]
In December 2017, ACMR formed ACM Research Korea to better service SK Hynix and would focus on hardware design and manufacture.[7]
In November 2021, ACMR (Shanghai) listed on theShanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market.[3][4][8]
In March 2022, theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission named ACMR as a company that faced delisting if it didn't hand over detailed audit documents to support its financial statement. This came as a result of theHolding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. ACMR's stock price dropped 27% as a result.[9] In response, ACMR changed its auditor fromBDO China Shu Lun Pan inShenzhen to Armanino inSan Ramon, California so it would no longer be subject to the related delisting guidelines.[10]
In April 2022, ACMR planned to build a fab equipment plant in Korea. It was speculated this was done to avoid being involved theChina–United States trade war.[7]
In December 2024, several of ACMR's subsidiaries were targeted in a new round of USexport controls and the subsidiaries were added to theUnited States Department of Commerce'sEntity List.[11]
Key customers of ACMR include SK Hynix,SMIC,Hua Hong Semiconductor andYangtze Memory Technologies. Apart from wafer cleaning, ACMR also has success in other areas such aselectroplating forpackaging firms.[2][3][4]
