China's chip-tool makers are winning share and paying for it in margins

The first-half 2026 accounts now on file from China's listed semiconductor equipment makers describe an industry that has largely settled the question of whether domestic tools can be built and has moved on to a harder one: whether they can be built profitably. Nine of the ten grew revenue by between 13.9% and 49.1% year on year. Gross margins mostly did not follow, and the two largest reported profit jumps turn out, on inspection, to rest heavily on items unrelated to selling equipment.