Conferencia de resultados del 3T de 2026 de ACM Research (ACMR): Eleva la previsión de ingresos

Puntos clave

• ACM Research registró unos ingresos de 367,7 millones de dólares en el tercer trimestre fiscal de 2026, lo que representa un aumento interanual del 36,6%, mientras que los envíos crecieron un 30,6%, hasta alcanzar los 343,5 millones de dólares.
• El beneficio operativo no GAAP aumentó a 66,2 millones de dólares frente a los 36,5 millones de dólares anteriores, lo que elevó el margen operativo del 13,6% al 18,0%.
• Las tecnologías de ECP, encapsulado front-end, hornos y otras lideraron el crecimiento, con un alza en los ingresos del 82,9%, hasta los 109,5 millones de dólares. La categoría de encapsulado avanzado creció un 71,2%, situándose en 47,5 millones de dólares.
• La cartera de pedidos alcanzó los 2.500 millones de dólares al 29 de septiembre de 2026, un 88% más en términos interanuales. Los pedidos acumulados en lo que va de año hasta el 30 de septiembre aumentaron un 147%.
• La dirección elevó sus perspectivas de ingresos para todo el año 2026 a un rango de entre 1.240 y 1.280 millones de dólares, lo que supone un crecimiento del 38% al 42%, frente al rango previo de entre 1.125 y 1.175 millones de dólares.
• La empresa prevé que los envíos del cuarto trimestre aumenten respecto al tercer trimestre y continúa proyectando que el crecimiento de los envíos para todo el año supere al crecimiento de los ingresos.

Resultados financieros clave

Desempeño comercial y operativo

Los ingresos por limpieza de oblea única, Tahoe y limpieza semicrítica aumentaron un 16,1%, hasta alcanzar los 210,7 millones de dólares, lo que representó el 57,3% de las ventas. La dirección atribuyó el renovado crecimiento de esta categoría a ganancias de cuota de mercado, un desarrollo tecnológico más rápido gracias a la línea Lingang Mini y una adopción más amplia de los sistemas SPM para oblea única.

ACM sigue en camino de entregar más de 20 equipos SPM para oblea única a múltiples clientes en 2026. Su sistema mejorado de SPM caliente a 170 °C alcanzó una tasa de reciclaje de ácido sulfúrico del 70%, con lo que la compañía prevé reducir el consumo anual de ácido sulfúrico en aproximadamente 400 toneladas por equipo.

Los ingresos procedentes de ECP, encapsulado front-end, hornos y otras tecnologías aumentaron un 82,9%, hasta los 109,5 millones de dólares, equivalentes al 29,8% de las ventas. El crecimiento estuvo impulsado principalmente por aplicaciones de galvanoplastia a nivel de oblea front-end y de encapsulado avanzado back-end.

ACM entregó en octubre un equipo horizontal de galvanoplastia a nivel de panel de 310x310 milímetros a un cliente asiático, tras el envío previo de un sistema de 515x510 milímetros a un cliente en China continental. La dirección espera que la galvanoplastia a nivel de panel y Track P3D comiencen a pasar de la fase de evaluación a la comercialización en 2027.

La categoría de encapsulado avanzado generó 47,5 millones de dólares en ingresos, lo que supone un aumento del 71,2% y representa el 12,9% de las ventas. La empresa destacó implementaciones activas en Singapur y Norteamérica.

Los dos edificios de ACM en Lingang pueden respaldar una producción anual de hasta 3.000 millones de dólares. El segundo edificio se encuentra en fase de aceleración, mientras que las instalaciones de Oregón se están preparando para respaldar demostraciones de productos, evaluaciones de clientes, premontaje, fabricación y servicio técnico fuera de China continental.

La dirección prevé que se hayan instalado más de 20 equipos fuera de China continental para finales de 2026, abarcando a aproximadamente 10 clientes en cinco países.

Previsiones de la dirección

ACM elevó su previsión de ingresos para todo el año 2026 a un rango de entre 1.240 y 1.280 millones de dólares, lo que implica un crecimiento interanual del 38% al 42%. El rango anterior se situaba entre 1.125 y 1.175 millones de dólares.

La dirección espera que los envíos del cuarto trimestre superen los niveles del tercer trimestre y continúa proyectando que el crecimiento de los envíos se sitúe por encima del crecimiento de los ingresos para todo el año.

La empresa prevé que el margen bruto del cuarto trimestre mejore ligeramente respecto al 41,6% del tercer trimestre. Mantuvo su objetivo de margen bruto a largo plazo del 42%-48%, al tiempo que señaló que la combinación trimestral de productos puede provocar fluctuaciones.

Para 2026, ACM planea un gasto en I+D del 15%-17% de los ingresos, un gasto en ventas y marketing del 7%-8% y un gasto general y administrativo de aproximadamente el 5%. La dirección espera una tasa impositiva efectiva de alrededor del 10% y unos gastos de capital para todo el año de aproximadamente 175 millones de dólares.

Riesgos y aspectos a vigilar

El margen bruto del tercer trimestre, del 41,6%, se situó ligeramente por debajo del rango objetivo a largo plazo de ACM. La dirección señaló la combinación de productos, el tipo de cambio y las provisiones de inventario, aunque calificó la provisión de inventario como dentro de un rango normal.

El rápido crecimiento está generando presión en la cadena de suministro. ACM está facilitando a los proveedores previsiones de seis a doce meses e incorporando segundas y terceras fuentes de suministro allí donde los proveedores actuales no puedan cubrir los requisitos de capacidad.

El inventario alcanzó los 851,2 millones de dólares, incluidos 465,5 millones de dólares en materias primas y 263,1 millones de dólares en productos terminados. La dirección indicó que la compañía utilizó recursos del balance para incrementar el inventario de materias primas y respaldar el crecimiento de la producción.

Varias plataformas más recientes —incluidas las de hornos, Track, PECVD y galvanoplastia a nivel de panel— siguen en fase de evaluación por parte de clientes o en despliegue inicial. Su contribución a los ingresos dependerá de que la homologación y la adopción en producción avancen a lo largo de 2027 y hacia 2028.

Puntos destacados de la sesión de preguntas y respuestas con analistas

La dirección afirmó que la cartera de pedidos se inclina hacia los productos más nuevos. SPM está empezando a contribuir de manera más significativa, mientras que se espera que los hornos aumenten su aportación a los ingresos en 2027. Track, PECVD y la galvanoplastia a nivel de panel siguen representando oportunidades en etapas más tempranas.

En cuanto a la expansión internacional, la dirección prevé que los ingresos procedentes de clientes globales crezcan, pero no proporcionó un objetivo a corto plazo para la distribución geográfica de los ingresos. Señaló que alcanzar el 10% de los ingresos a la escala actual requeriría más de 120 millones de dólares procedentes de clientes globales.

Respecto al crecimiento de los pedidos, la dirección señaló que ACM se está expandiendo más rápido que el mercado de equipos de fabricación de obleas de China en pedidos, ingresos y envíos, pero no cuantificó qué parte del incremento se debió al crecimiento del mercado frente a las ganancias de cuota.

Transcripción completa de la conferencia de resultados

Transcripción completa de la conferencia de resultados

Comentarios de la dirección

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the ACM Research Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, we are recording today's call. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Steven Pelayo. Please go ahead.

Steven C. Pelayo

Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss third quarter 2026 results, which we released before the U.S. market opened today. The release is available on our website as well as from Newswire services. There is also a supplemental slide deck posted to the Investors section of our website that we will reference during our prepared remarks.

On the call with me today are our CEO, David Wang; our CFO, Mark McKechnie; and Lisa Feng, our CFO of our operating subsidiary, ACM Shanghai.

Before we continue, please turn to Slide 2. Let me remind you that the remarks made during this call may include predictions, estimates and other information that might be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements represent ACM's current judgment for the future.

However, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Those risks are described under Risk Factors and elsewhere in ACM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Please do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect ACM's opinions only as of the date of this call. ACM is not obliged to update you on any revisions to these forward-looking statements.

Certain financial results that we provide on this call will be on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and unrealized gains and losses on short-term investments and beginning in -- sorry, and beginning in the second quarter of 2026, its impact to net income attributable to noncontrolling interest.

For our GAAP results and reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP amounts, you should refer to our earnings release, which is posted on the IR section of our website and to Slide 13. Also, unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to third quarter 2026 and comparisons are to the third quarter of 2025.

I will now turn the call over to David Wang. David?

David Wang

Thanks, Steven. Hello, everyone, and welcome to ACM's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. We delivered strong results for the September quarter with revenue up 37% and shipments up 31%. We attribute the growth to: one, market share gain and product cycle; and two, good execution by our production and supply chain team. Growth was led by our ECP and advanced packaging categories.

I'm especially pleased with the return to our growth for our cleaning categories. One, we are gaining market share with more cleaning steps and technology improvements. Two, our Lingang Mini line is helping our engineers to duplicate our customer production environment and deliver technology improvements to the market much faster; and three, broad adoption of our single-wafer SPM solution across multiple customers.

We are making good progress with our proprietary panel-level horizontal electroplating technology. In October, we announced the shipment to a customer in Asia of 310x310 millimeter panel level horizontal plating tool.

We believe this is the world's first shipment of its kind and it truly marks a significant milestone in our commercialization efforts. This follows earlier shipment of a larger 515x510-millimeter system to a Mainland China customer. I will provide more detail on this later.

I will now provide an update on our backlog. As reported by ACM Shanghai about a month ago, total backlog as of September 29, 2026, was USD 2.5 billion, an 88% year-over-year increase. The backlog includes orders across all product category with a heavier emphasis on our new products.

Year-to-date orders through September 30 were up 147%. Thanks to good execution by our sales, production and operation team, we continue to expect shipment to grow faster than revenue for 2026.

We remain confident in our growth profile. For 2026, we see a healthy backdrop for China WFE as our customers continue to scale their production capacity. We expect an extra boost for our business from several product cycles, including SPM and furnace.

Market share gains together with strong execution enable us to outgrow the China WFE market. We are optimistic that our newer platform are providing another source for growing as we expect the Track P3D and the panel level horizontal plating to proceed from evaluation phase into commercialization phase beginning next year.

Now on to our third quarter results. Please turn to Slide 3. Revenue was $368 million, up 37%. Shipments were $343 million, up 31%. Gross margin was 41.6% and operating margin was 18%. And we [indiscernible] the quarter -- we ended the quarter with a gross cash of $1.3 billion and net cash $0.9 billion.

Now I'll provide detail on product. Please turn to Slide 4. Revenue from single-wafer cleaning, Tahoe and semi-critical cleaning tool was $211 million, up 16% and represent 27% of revenue. ACM has developed one of the industry's broadest cleaning product portfolio, spanning a full range of critical cleaning and wet process steps.

Our products, including [indiscernible], [ Maxonic ], Tahoe, backside cleaning, solvent cleaning, bevel cleaning, scrubber, wet etcher and our proprietary sulfuric peroxide mixing of SPM technology. Semiconductor devices are becoming more complex with additional process steps and more demanding cleaning requirements.

We believe our broad portfolio of differentiated technology positions ACM to capture those growing opportunities. We are fully committed to our long-term target for 60% market share in China's cleaning equipment market.

Our SPM product line is a key part of the target. As a reminder, we estimate that SPM tool represent about 1/3 of the total cleaning equipment market, and our product cycle is just now beginning to contribute.

We recently introduced an enhanced version of our 170-degree C single-wafer hot SPM system, incorporating sulfuric acid recycling. The system achieved a 70% sulfuric acid recycle rate with reasonable particle performance. This innovation is expected to reduce sulfuric acid consumption by approximately 400 tons per tool annually, delivering meaningful environment and operating cost benefits.

In October, at China International Industry Fair, ACM Shanghai was presented with the China International Industry Fair Innovation Achievements Award for its single wafer high-temperature SPM cleaning system. This is yet another award from prestigious organization, which further highlights the innovation and technology capability of our SPM platform. I'm pleased to repeat today that we are on track to ship more than 20 single wafer SPM tool across multiple customers for the full year of 2026.

Beyond SPM, we continue to expand the capability and application of other differentiated cleaning technologies. Ultra C Tahoe now supporting additional wet etcher and monitor wafer reclaim application, providing customers with a greater process flexibility and expanding the range of addressable applications, especially in the reduction for fine particle less than 19 nanometer.

We are also getting more traction with our supercritical CO2 cleaning technology. Our differentiated technology with a much smaller CO2 chamber reduced CO2 usage by 30% as compared with other market solutions. At the same time, we deliver better drying performance. This is a strong combination, and we are confident we can take share with this product line and expanding application from DRAM to 3D NAND analogic application.

Revenue from ECP, furnace and other technology grew 83% and represent 30% of the total revenue. Growing -- growth was driven primarily by strong momentum in both front-end wafer level and back-end advanced packaging electroplating application with the furnace contribute to a relatively small portion. We see increased demand for electroplating for both logic and memory applications as semiconductor manufacturing and packaging become more complex.

Our proprietary panel level horizontal plating technology is a game changer for the industry. We began development for panel level plating for more than 5 years ago, and the market is now coming to us. Our patent horizontal design enable highly uniform plating across panel, including increasingly larger dimension substrate formats.

Our 310x310 millimeter system supports copper, nickel, tin, silver, gold plating process, incorporates high-speed plating panel technology and supports total copper pillar exceeding 300 micron with good within die uniformity. We have engaged with multiple customers across different regions and panel size configurations.

We also offer comprehensive set of wet processing tool for panel-level packaging, including Ultra C, Vacuum P flux cleaning and Ultra C panel etcher and cleaning tool. We are confident that ACM differentiated technology position us to enable next-generation solution as driven by the increasingly complex 2.5D and 3D packaging road map for the global AI.

Turning to our furnace business. We continue to make progress in expanding customer adoption. We are advancing our capability across key applications, including silicon nitride LPCVD, polysilicon LPCVD oxidation, thermal ALD and plasma enhanced ALD, addressing opportunity across both memory and logic applications.

We also supply high-temperature [indiscernible] degree C and ultra-high temperature 1250 C annealing furnace, especially address IGBT application. As this system complete customer acceptance and the transition into production, we expect the furnace to make a more meaningful contribution to our revenue in 2027.

Revenue from advanced packaging, which exclude ECP, but includes service and spare parts was up 71% and represent 13% of the revenue mix, this including coater, developer, etcher, sleeper, scrubber and vacuum cleaning tools, supporting a broader range of advanced packaging applications.

We are particularly pleased with our global progress here with active deployment in Singapore and North America across a range of those tools. We believe our broad product portfolio and expanding global customer relationships position us well to capture additional opportunity as we continue to grow this business.

Turning to our Track and PECVD platform. We have made progress with customer evaluation and the initial deployment of our next-generation system. For Track, our focus remains on delivering industry-leading throughput and competitive process performance, addressing opportunity in KIF lithography across the stand-alone system and configuration integrated with lithography scanners.

For TCD, we believe our differentiated chamber architecture, electrostatic track design and RF power source technology provide important advantages in throughput and process performance.

We are working closely with a key customer to demonstrate the performance and capability of both platforms. Looking ahead, we expect additional shipment in 2027 with a revenue contribution and expected as customer qualification and production adoption progress through 2027 and into 2028.

Next, I will provide an update on global manufacturing and operation infrastructure. First, Lingang, please turn to Slide 8. Our first Lingang building continued to operate in volume production, and we are currently ramping up our second building.

Together, the 2 building can support up to $3 billion in annual output, providing a significant capacity to scale our business over time. I'm pleased to report that we expect shipments in the fourth quarter of 2026 to increase from third quarter levels. And we also plan for good growth in shipment to 2027 and beyond.

Next, our Oregon facility. Please turn to Slide 9. We are preparing for the official opening of our Oregon operation very soon. This is an important milestone to support customers outside Mainland China. The facility, including Class 100 cleaning room to product demonstration and customer evaluation, along with the clean room for storage, preassembly, manufacturing and technical support capability.

We believe U.S.-based demo lab and production facility will support our effort to scale our global business. In addition, we continue to strengthen our operation across Asia. In Korea, we are expanding the capability of ACM [ Hongo ] Group, including manufacturing, engineering and technical supporting resource to serve our growing international customer base. And in Singapore, we are adding local resource to support customer installation, service and ongoing technical engagement.

Our global business continued to gain momentum. As we discussed last quarter, we expect to have more than 20 tools installed at the customer site outside Mainland China by end of year -- by year-end 2026, represent approximately 10 customers across 5 countries.

We are particularly encouraged by our progress in North America, Singapore and other part of Asia, where our global sales as a service team are expanding customer relationships and supporting deployment across a growing range of products and applications.

This engagement are helping us establish a stronger foundation for future business as customers gain experience with our technology and evaluate the opportunity for broader adoption. The progress we are making demonstrates the competitiveness of our technology and position ACM for meaningful long-term growth outside Mainland China.

Now I'll provide our outlook for the full year 2026. Please turn to Slide 10. As a result of good execution by our sales and operation team, significant backlog and several major product cycles, we are raising our outlook as follows: we now expect 2026 revenue to be $1.24 billion to $1.28 billion, up 38% to 42% year-over-year.

This compares to our previous range of $1.125 billion to $1.175 billion. We continue to expect full year shipment growth to outpace revenue growth.

We believe our expanding differentiated product portfolio, global infrastructure and global customer relationships position ACM to capture new market opportunity and advance towards our long-term revenue target of $4 billion.

With that, let me turn the call over to Mark to review our financial results in more detail.

Mark McKechnie

Thank you, David. Good day, everyone. Please turn to Slide 11. Unless I note otherwise, I will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude stock-based compensation and unrealized gain/loss on short-term investments.

A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release. Also, unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the third quarter of 2026 and comparisons are with the third quarter of 2025.

I'll now provide the financial highlights. Revenue was $367.7 million, up 36.6%. Revenue for single-wafer cleaning, Tahoe and semi-critical cleaning was $210.7 million, up 16.1% and represented 57.3% of sales. Revenue for ECP, front-end packaging, furnace and other technologies was $109.5 million, up 82.9% and represented 29.8% of sales.

Revenue for advanced packaging, excluding ECP, services and spares was $47.5 million, up 71.2% and represented 12.9% of sales. Total shipments were $343.5 million, up 30.6%. 2026, we continue to expect shipment growth to outpace revenue growth.

Gross margin was 41.6% versus 42.1%. Gross margin was slightly below our long-term target model. This was due in part to product mix, foreign exchange and the inventory provision for the quarter.

We maintain our 42% to 48% long-term target range and product mix can cause fluctuations on a quarterly basis. For the fourth quarter, we expect gross margin to improve modestly from the third quarter level.

Operating expenses were $86.7 million, up 12.7%. R&D was 12.8% of sales, sales and marketing was 6.7% and G&A was 4%. For 2026, we plan for R&D in the 15% to 17% range, sales and marketing in the 7% to 8% range and G&A in the 5% range.

Operating income was $66.2 million versus $36.5 million. Operating margin was 18.0% as compared to 13.6%. Income tax expense was $1.9 million versus $2.7 million. For 2026, we expect our effective tax rate in the 10% range.

Net income attributable to ACM Research was $40.5 million versus $28.4 million. Non-GAAP net income excluded $10.7 million in stock-based compensation expense and the unrealized loss on short-term investments together with its effect on noncontrolling interest. Net income per diluted share was $0.55 versus $0.41.

Now on to the balance sheet and cash flow items. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and time deposits were $1.28 billion at the end of the third quarter. Net cash, which excludes short-term and long-term debt was $0.9 billion.

Total inventory net was $851.2 million. This consisted of raw materials net at $465.5 million, work-in-progress net at $122.7 million, finished goods inventory net at $263.1 million. This primarily consists of first tools under evaluation at our customer sites, along with finished goods located at ACM's facilities.

Cash used by operations was $70.4 million. Capital expenditures were $25.2 million. For the full year 2026, we continue to expect capital expenditures of about $175 million.

That concludes our prepared remarks. Now let's open the call for any questions that you may have. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Suji Desilva of ROTH Capital.

Preguntas y respuestas

Sujeeva De Silva

Congratulations on the progress here, very strong. Good job. So the new products seem to be growing nicely here. What do you think the mix of those will be a year or 2 out versus where they are now? Because I think that will help drive some of the growth and the margin opportunity for you guys?

Mark McKechnie

David, you're muted. David, I think you're muted. We can hear you now, David.

David Wang

Well, actually, you mean the new product, right, our track PECVD, right, and the [indiscernible]. Yes, I think the -- well, again, this new product will be also where we emphasize differential technology and when they come out and will be also -- we think will be a good margin for our product.

Especially horizontal electroplating, right, got a good recognition from customer and also our track system started getting into their preproduction together with scanner or the PCB made the progress, too. So as this new product join -- including furnace too, right, join into our revenue stream, and we think will still give us to maintain and even some product increase our gross margin.

Mark McKechnie

Yes. Hey, Suji, maybe I'll answer to that. I mean, the mix of the new products next year, one thing is in the backlog, I think David mentioned that the mix was skewed a bit towards some of our newer products. I mean, we've got a lot teed up for new products next year that they'll contribute in different -- some shipments first then to revenue.

But our SPM product cycle is just starting to kick in pretty nicely. I think furnace we've got a lot of tools that are under evaluation. And so that's really small, and we expect that to kick in pretty nice next year. And then, of course, Track PECVD and the panel level plating tools are really early stage. So a lot of growth potential from all those starting next year.

Sujeeva De Silva

Yes. That sounds great. And then on the -- same question in terms of mix and how that trends next year or 2 for the global customers versus the China customers because it seems both are growing, but it seems like you're landing in more regions and geographies globally. So curious how that -- the global customer mix increases over the next year or 2?

David Wang

Yes. Actually, we see there are more of our international customer interest into our technology, right? And this year, we have more of advanced packaging tool install in the Singapore region.

And also, we do have other customer interest to our technology in the U.S., in Korea, and also in Taiwan region, right? So we see that there are also customers in Europe. So we are -- this year -- by end of this year, we have 20 tool being installed in the region outside Mainland China.

So I should say next year, we'll have a much better outcome, right, for the global customer.

Mark McKechnie

Yes. Hey, Suji, the one thing I'd add is you kind of -- we'll, of course, give our guidance like we always do in January of next year. But for the global customers to hit 10% of our revenue, at these levels, it's $120 million plus.

And so we're not really ready to talk about the mix that will hit. I guess the challenge is our business in China with our product cycles is growing at a pretty good clip. So it's -- but we expect the global customers to really grow in terms of revenue this year, of course, next year and for many years to come as we scale that up.

Sujeeva De Silva

Yes. I understand China is growing strong as well. Last quick question, supply chain, are you guys seeing any constraints? And then what's the timing to [ Regan's ] second building being up and running? How long do you think that will take?

David Wang

I think the second building we already finished decoration and we start moving the people and start using that right now. So with that second building being put into the manufacturing, our space almost double, right? Of course, we're going to hire more people, train the other technicians and workers and we get a double of the capacity.

Next one is really, I want to say, this supply chain constraint, right? And probably everybody has the same problem since it's increasing too fast. But we're still doing very well and to working with our vendor supplier.

So basically, we give them 6 months and even longer 1-year forecast. Then we give those primary, I want to say, the supplier forecast.

We want them increase the capacity. But some people -- some can do maybe, some cannot meet our requirement. Therefore, are looking for a second source, third source and to meet those requirements. So our team was working very well. And again, it's a lot of challenging and our team made a lot of progress for this supply chain management and control.

Mark McKechnie

Yes. Suji, if you don't mind just add a few things. I mean our supply chain team is really critical, right? I mean they've helped us drive the growth over the past years. We've been through some interesting market conditions. In this case, we think we're doing -- ACM is not going to be the one to hold up our customers, right? And so David was pretty clear.

Q3 shipments were pretty strong. We expect Q4 shipments to be even higher, right? And that's -- if you go back and look at some of our past years, a lot of times, you have kind of a flat to down Q4.

But I think the execution from the team, the [ Slingong ] facility is on comes on at exactly the right time. And we used our balance sheet to grow our raw materials this quarter. So we used a little bit of cash, but I think that was the right thing to do to scale up for our production.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Bintuo Ni of Daiwa Securities.

Bintuo Ni

So first question is that we had a pretty volatile gross margin. Now it's back to 41% in third quarter. You mentioned product mix and also the inventory provisions. Can I share more about the inventory provisions? And also, is it also happening in fourth quarter as well?

Mark McKechnie

Yes. Yes, let me hit on that, and then -- I'll kind of hit that one and let David talk a little bit about our strategies here. But the inventory provision, it wasn't particularly high here in the third quarter. And last -- the second half of last year, we had some challenges there. But this time, it was kind of within a normal range.

So we feel like we've got that managed. And so it will be in kind of similar levels next quarter and even quarterly for next year, the provision. The bigger impact was really, I think, on the product mix and even the foreign exchange on the quarter. David, you might want to say something about kind of how we focus on world-class products, right, kind of the longer-term strategy for our gross margins.

David Wang

Yes. I would say that real gross margin long run, and it's really we rely on our differential product, right? And with all cleaning, cover plating and also furnace, we're developing PCV, also Track.

We all rely on our differential technology. So our product and with -- in the market even in China sell a lot, we cannot see anybody can copy our differential technology with all well patent and also treated secret protection.

So with our product, if we're succeeding become the #1 performance, I mean, succeeding in the top tier of the global player, and that product will really have a good margin in China market. If anybody said cannot copy ACM tool, right?

Even some similar to come out with the top-tier guys tool, their performance is still below us. That's our confidence we can maintain long term and gross margin in the market in China.

Of course, those differentiated patent protect our technology also can sell outside Mainland China and also outside Mainland China pricing also good too. So for that long run consideration, we have confidence we can maintain our gross margin in the 42% to 48%.

Bintuo Ni

That's great. My second question is about the orders. You had -- if I hear correctly, you had 147% order growth in 9 months '26. I think your first half order growth was 100%. So third quarter was very strong. So how much is driven by volume? And how much is driven by share gains?

David Wang

Mark, do you want to touch on that?

Mark McKechnie

Yes. Yes, let me hit on that. And I think, David, I'll help you with that. So it's -- the market in China has been pretty solid, right? And we think it's still pretty kind of early in the investment days in China.

We don't -- growing our shipments 30% and the orders at the level we're growing, we think we're growing a lot faster than the market, both in terms of orders, revenue and shipments. And so I don't know how to break it out between the market and the China WFE market, but it's always our goal to grow faster than the China WFE market.

David Wang

Yes. I want to see that is -- China market still in the -- I want to say their growing stage. A lot of logic fab and also the memory fab continue and increase their capacity. Also, I want to say the demand and also all this -- the data center and the automobile and also robotics will continue driving China market growth.

So also, I want to say that probably you want to say the building space and also space is probably about 2 years -- a few years compared with outside growth, right, in terms of the technology. So we see that even peak reach so far people talk about global 2028, maybe the peak or 2029 peak. We think China peak will be behind that year or 2 years. So that's why we have a real strong confidence to the revenue long run in the next 5 years for China WFE market.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions. Speakers, please continue.

Steven C. Pelayo

Okay. Thanks, everyone. Before we conclude, I do want to give everyone a quick reminder of our upcoming investor conferences. On November 18, we will participate in the 15th Annual ROTH Technology Conference at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City. On November 19, we'll participate with the Daiwa Miami Corporate Day at the Mondrian South Beach in Miami.

December 2 and 3, we will present at the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. And on December 15, we'll present at the 15th Annual New York City Summit at Maestros in New York City. Attendance at the conference is by invitation only.

For interested investors, please contact your respective sales representatives to register and schedule one-on-one meetings with the management team. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect. Take care.