In the competition for semiconductor equipment, the surface lies in the complete machines, while the foundation rests on components and measurement and control capabilities.
Beijing U-Precision Technology Co., Ltd. recently submitted its listing application to the SSE STAR Market for the second time. The application was accepted on June 30, 2026, entered the "inquired" status on July 12, and the reply to the first round of inquiries was disclosed on September 18. This IPO plans to raise CNY 3.5 billion, with China Merchants Securities as the sponsor.
The "second IPO" is merely an observational window; what is truly worth dissecting is how a company can extend its underlying technology of "ultra-precision measurement and control" into industrialization capabilities covering multiple types of critical process equipment.
| Secondary Capitalization Under the Same Technological Route
It is necessary to first clarify the time coordinates.
This is not U-Precision's first sprint for the SSE STAR Market. Its initial application was accepted in June 2020 and passed the review of the Listing Committee in September 2021; however, that application did not enter the registration stage and was ultimately terminated in June 2024 when the issuer and the then-sponsor, Dongxing Securities, voluntarily withdrew the application documents.
In other words, the current application, sponsored by China Merchants Securities, is a second attempt under the same technological route but at a different capitalization point. The sponsoring entities and the planned fundraising scale (CNY 735 million for the first time and CNY 3.5 billion this time) differ significantly between the two applications, but the underlying technological narrative remains unchanged—this is precisely the key to observation.
| A Platform, Not a Single Product
The key to understanding U-Precision lies in its self-definition as a manufacturer "with ultra-precision measurement and control technology as its core technology platform," rather than a producer of a specific type of equipment.
According to the prospectus, ultra-precision measurement and control technology is regarded as one of the core underlying technologies in the semiconductor industry, running through the entire process of IC (Integrated Circuit) design, wafer manufacturing, and packaging and testing; its precision level directly affects the process window, product yield, and performance, serving as a critical support for achieving advanced process breakthroughs and manufacturing stability.
The prospectus further discloses that the company's main products and technologies have been applied to IC manufacturing and advanced packaging production lines for 40/28/14nm and below processes, covering multiple critical process steps such as thermal treatment, bonding, metrology and inspection, etching, thin film deposition, and ion implantation. This means that when technological capabilities are consolidated at the "platform" level, the enterprise possesses the scalability to reuse the same set of precision control, motion control, and measurement and control capabilities across different process equipment—this scalability is precisely the prerequisite for the parallel advancement of its four major product lines.
Author's Reflection: When the market prices semiconductor equipment companies, it is accustomed to the narrative of "single-product breakthrough"—if a certain type of equipment achieves domestic leadership, the story makes sense. However, U-Precision's value assumption is exactly the opposite: "platform reuse," where the same set of measurement and control capabilities is reused across different equipment. This brings a judgment difficulty—platform-oriented enterprises often appear "not strong enough in every aspect" in their early stages, but once multiple product categories simultaneously cross the customer validation threshold, synergistic effects will emerge non-linearly. The author's inclination is that evaluating such companies cannot apply the linear expectations of single-product manufacturers; otherwise, it is easy to misjudge them at the stage when they should be understood the most.
| Technological Thresholds and Process Anchor Points
According to the prospectus, U-Precision's main business consists of four categories of products, accounting for the following proportions of main business revenue: precision motion systems 41.93%, laser annealing equipment 27.13%, electrostatic chucks 24.78%, and wafer bonding equipment 5.94%. Their common characteristic is that they are all in the "precision-sensitive and scarce in domestic supply" segments of the semiconductor manufacturing chain.
Precision Motion Systems
This is the direct carrier of nanometer-precision motion and measurement and control capabilities, and also the core subsystem for lithography machine wafer stages, metrology and inspection equipment, etc. According to the prospectus, based on data from institutions such as QYResearch and the company's revenue scale, its domestic market share increased from approximately 3.36% in 2024 to approximately 7.94% in 2025, with customers including Skyverse, VPTek, etc.
Laser Annealing Equipment
Anchored in the thermal treatment process step in wafer manufacturing. Similar calculations show that its domestic market share rose from approximately 6.46% in 2023 to approximately 7.05% in 2025, and it has entered the mass production lines of leading domestic wafer manufacturing enterprises.
Electrostatic Chucks
These are critical consumable components responsible for wafer clamping and temperature control in processes such as etching and thin film deposition. The prospectus discloses that the company's domestic market share increased from approximately 0.33% in 2023 to approximately 2.98% in 2025; in the field of electrostatic chucks, the company ranks 17th globally and is one of only two domestic enterprises among the top 18 global manufacturers. Among them, etching electrostatic chucks have been delivered in batches to NAURA Technology and AMEC, and applied to their 12-inch etching equipment—the prospectus states that the company has filled the domestic gap in high-end electrostatic chucks in multiple segmented directions.
Wafer Bonding Equipment
Corresponding to the bonding process in advanced packaging and 3D integration. According to disclosures, its domestic market share rose from approximately 1.38% in 2023 to approximately 4.43% in 2025; it ranks eighth among global wafer bonding equipment manufacturers and is the only domestic enterprise among the top ten manufacturers.
It needs to be emphasized that the above market shares and rankings are all derived from third-party institution data cited in the prospectus and the company's self-calculated caliber, and the starting base is generally low. Understanding them as "marginal progress in domestic substitution" is closer to the facts than understanding them as "pattern disruption."
Author's Reflection: The market share climbing from a fraction of a percentage point to several percentage points is negligible in absolute terms, but it has symbolic significance in the context of domestic substitution—it proves that segments once judged as "impossible to produce domestically" now have deliverable supply. The significance of such data lies not in the share itself, but in the completion of the "0 to 1" validation; what should truly be tracked is whether this curve can move from "climbing after the decimal point" to "single-digit or even double-digit penetration." That step is the watershed for domestic substitution moving from narrative to structure.
| Standing Behind Domestic Equipment Manufacturers
U-Precision's customer structure reveals its true industrial position: Skyverse, NAURA Technology, AMEC, Yandong Microelectronics, Wuhan Xinxin, BYD Semiconductor, VPTek, etc. It is not the "protagonist" facing terminal wafer fabs, but an "upstream supplier" providing core subsystems and components for domestic equipment complete machine manufacturers.
This deep-tech B2B positioning has a dual meaning. On the one hand, its growth is highly synchronized with the capacity expansion and localization pace of domestic semiconductor equipment complete machine manufacturers; customer concentration itself is the result of industrial chain synergy rather than an anomaly. On the other hand, the volatility and certainty of its revenue will depend more on the capital expenditure cycles and equipment validation and introduction pace of downstream customers, rather than consumer-end demand.
Author's Reflection: Customer concentration in a few domestic equipment manufacturers such as NAURA Technology and AMEC would be labeled as "reliance on major customers" under a conventional financial risk framework. However, the author's observation is exactly the opposite—in the semiconductor equipment supply chain, being able to enter the production lines of leading complete machine manufacturers is itself an extremely high trust threshold, which explains whether the technology is "needed" better than revenue dispersion. In other words, the concentration here is more like the result of "having been selected by the industrial chain" rather than passive binding. What truly needs to be guarded against is not having few customers, but having many customers who all stay in the validation stage and delay the transition to mass production.
| Growth and Losses Coexist
Financial data should take a back seat to the technological narrative here, but it still needs to be presented truthfully to avoid misinterpretation caused by selective disclosure.
According to the prospectus, U-Precision's operating revenues from 2023 to 2025 were CNY 320 million, CNY 627 million, and CNY 657 million, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 43.23%; during the same period, net profits attributable to the parent company were CNY -72.68 million, CNY -65.62 million, and CNY -95.33 million, respectively, remaining in a continuous state of loss, with the loss amount expanding in 2025.
From the perspective of the life cycle of technology enterprises, high R&D investment and products still being in the early stage of industrialization "moving from validation to mass delivery" are typical financial characteristics of such enterprises, and should not be simply interpreted as operational deceleration. Indicators more worthy of continuous tracking are the trend of gross profit margin, the conversion efficiency of R&D investment, and the realization pace of each product line from "entering customer production lines" to "stable mass delivery"—the latter is the hard constraint for judging the certainty of its commercialization.
As for the specific causes of the expanded loss in 2025 (R&D intensity, capacity ramp-up, or changes in expense structure), it is necessary to refer to the further disclosed expense details in the prospectus, and no inference is made here.
Author's Reflection: Consecutive losses for three years with an expansion in 2025 is a negative factor for the value investment framework; for deep-tech component manufacturers at the critical point of "validation to mass production," more attention should be paid to the "structure of the losses"—whether they are burned on R&D and customer validation (benign investment) or on low-efficiency capacity and out-of-control expenses (warning signal).
| The Significance of the Sample
Placing U-Precision back into the industry coordinate system, its sample significance lies not in "whether it is profitable," but in whether a manufacturer based on ultra-precision measurement and control can continuously form the rigidity of "being needed" at multiple critical process nodes, and transform platform capabilities into products that can be delivered in mass.
The rise in market share from a low base disclosed in the prospectus and the emergence of domestic faces in the rankings of global equipment manufacturers are progressive evidence of domestic substitution at the micro level. Whether the second application can complete the registration process is, in essence, a repricing by the market of its technological scalability and commercialization certainty—this is more worthy of long-term observation than the label of "second IPO" itself.
Author's Reflection: The ultimate test for such platform-oriented component manufacturers has never been the moment of "passing the meeting," but whether they can simultaneously become the "default option" for customers at multiple process nodes. The last mile of domestic substitution is often not about whether the technology can be developed, but whether customers are willing to hand over critical production lines to domestic suppliers for the long term. This is a test question that U-Precision must answer, and all platform-oriented manufacturers on the path of domestic substitution must also answer. The author will put it on the long-term observation list, looking not at the slope of revenue in a certain year, but whether the distance for those several categories of products from "entering the production line" to "being indispensable" is getting shorter year by year.
The facts and data involved in this article are all from the following public disclosures and public information, subject to the time of disclosure: Information disclosure of the issuance and listing review project of the Shanghai Stock Exchange: Beijing U-Precision Technology Co., Ltd. SSE STAR Market IPO project page (this application, acceptance date 2026-06-30; and the first application, acceptance date 2020-06-24, termination date 2024-06-26). U-Precision's prospectus (application draft) and its disclosure documents such as inquiries and replies, including third-party institution data such as QYResearch cited therein and the company's self-calculated caliber. Public reports by media such as Shanghai Securities News and CNRNet on the passing of the meeting and withdrawal termination of the first application.
This article is a technical review from the perspective of industry observation, does not constitute any investment advice, securities recommendation, or offer to buy or sell, nor does it represent the position of any institution.