by LU Keyan

Chinese semiconductor testing equipment makers are expanding production and investment as growing demand for AI chips and memory drives orders for more advanced testing systems.

At the 2026 WESEMiBAY Semiconductor Ecosystem Expo in Shenzhen, domestic manufacturers showcased testing equipment targeting high-performance processors and next-generation memory chips.

Among them was Shenzhen SEICHI Technologies, which announced two contracts worth a combined 2.89 billion yuan (US$407 million) this year, more than 2.5 times its total revenue in 2025.

The company, whose memory testing equipment revenue surged 150% last year, broke ground on its first self-built production facility in Shenzhen on October 10. The plant will expand capacity for wafer testers, final-test systems and other memory testing equipment.

"Our priority now is to deliver on these orders," SEICHI Tech director XIE Siyao told Jiemian News.

Other Chinese suppliers are also expanding their product lines and investing in research and production.

Hangzhou Changchuan Technology reported testing equipment revenue of 1.87 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, up nearly 50% year on year. Its D9000 series targets system-on-chip (SoC) and digital logic chips, while its temperature-controlled handlers serve high-power processors including GPUs.

Beijing Huafeng Test & Control Technology said its STS8600 SoC testing system had entered small-scale installation, while Wuhan Jingce Electronic Group has developed a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) burn-in testing system and secured repeat orders for existing memory testing products.

Investment is accelerating alongside product development.

Changchuan raised 3.13 billion yuan through a private share placement in March, earmarking about 2.19 billion yuan for research and development projects involving high-end testing equipment. It announced plans for a Hong Kong listing in September.

Huafeng raised 749 million yuan through convertible bonds in June to develop testing systems using proprietary chips. Privately held TBSTest Technology secured more than 1.2 billion yuan in pre-IPO financing in March to support research and capacity expansion.

The investment reflects the growing importance of testing as chips become faster and more complex. Defects detected late in production can result in substantial losses, while manufacturers increasingly rely on testing equipment during chip development to refine production processes.

Industry association SEMI forecasts global semiconductor test equipment sales will grow 31% in 2026 to US$15.3 billion, faster than the overall semiconductor manufacturing equipment market.

International suppliers continue to dominate the high-end market.

According to Soochow Securities, Japan's Advantest held 61% of the global memory tester market in 2025, followed by US-based Teradyne with 24%.

While Chinese suppliers have achieved a domestic market penetration rate exceeding 85% in analog and mixed-signal testers, the figure remains just 8% to 10% for memory testers and around 5% for SoC testers, the brokerage estimated.

Soochow Securities expects China's memory testing equipment market to expand from 4.8 billion yuan in 2026 to 15.5 billion yuan in 2027, driven by capacity expansion at ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies, alongside growing demand for advanced DRAM and HBM testing.

Longer delivery times among international suppliers could also create opportunities for Chinese equipment makers, the brokerage said.

The expansion presents a significant commercial opportunity, but manufacturers will need to demonstrate that their systems can meet the performance and reliability requirements of increasingly sophisticated chips.