CHINA SEMI LOCALIZATION plays going vertical today: AMEC 688012, NAURA 002371, ACMR 688082, and lesser known back-end equip play Hwatsing 688120. Theme gaining momentum on govt support, CXMT IPO, and I can't see many obstacles in near term. MS adding Naura to APxJ focus list today. Notes on AMEC, China's Lam:

👀 China's chip equipment push is gaining momentum. #AMEC# targets 60% high-end equipment market coverage within five years, powered by an etching portfolio supporting 65nm-to-3nm manufacturing. 💡More: 🔗

REUTERS: SAMSUNG AND SK HYNIX ARE EXPLORING THE ADOPTION OF CHINESE-MADE EQUIPMENT AS U.S. SANCTIONS COULD MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO BRING EQUIPMENT INTO THEIR CHINA FABS According to Reuters sources, the two companies began testing AMEC’s etching equipment about two years ago, although no decision has yet been made on broader deployment. The aim is not to expand production capacity in China, but to keep Chinese suppliers in reserve in case U.S. restrictions are extended to the servicing, repair, or replacement of existing Western equipment. Samsung operates a NAND plant in Xi’an, while SK Hynix operates a DRAM plant in Wuxi and NAND facilities in Dalian. These plants currently rely heavily on etching equipment from U.S. suppliers such as Applied Materials and Lam Research. AMEC’s equipment is already used by Chinese chipmakers including YMTC. Chinese tools are about 20% to 30% cheaper than comparable foreign equipment, while the technology gap has also narrowed in areas such as etching, deposition, cleaning, and planarization. Approval from Samsung or SK Hynix would provide AMEC with significant technical and commercial validation and could, over the longer term, pose a threat to established global equipment suppliers such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA.

CHINA AI GPU TAM ESTIMATE RAISED 37%: MS getting more bullish on local players Cambricon 688256; Hua Hong 1347; AMEC 688012; NAURA 002371 et. al., estimating recent US policy shifts on AI semis and China response will lead to larger 2030 $91bn TAM. Arms races benefit the suppliers more than the combatants (CSPs).

A native PC port of the original Spyro the Dragon is officially in the works, and according to Spyro speedrunner Lumilaura, it’s coming sooner than many fans expect. They want to keep the game as faithful as possible to the 1998 PlayStation release The developers have made it clear that the port is being made with no AI. - 60 FPS support - True widescreen support - Perspective-correct textures - Fixes for the original polygon wobble - Native Windows support - Gameplay that matches the original game 1:1, including classic speedrunning tricks and glitches The project is being built using the OpenPETE decompilation/recompilation project by Amec and tyscorp. The developers say the first Spyro game is the current focus, with the possibility of supporting the other PS1 Spyro games in the future.

SPE ESTIMATES RAISED AT MS: Raising 26/27 DRAM WFE spending by about 10% each, while not tweaking NAND much at all. Outcome favors AMAT, but maintaining pref for LRCX. Given that the YoY deltas will be much higher for Chinese names CXMT (DRAM) and YMTC (NAND), Chinese local SPEs (benefiting from captive clients) are clearly leveraged to theme, with AMEC 688012 best positioned.