--- title: "NAURA pays 405 million yuan for a loss-making chip-stacking toolmaker; Huawei and CXMT build on the step" description: "NAURA Technology is paying 405 million yuan for a loss-making hybrid-bonding toolmaker, buying into the packaging step Huawei's LogicFolding chips and CXMT's 4F² DRAM now both rely on. The segment Besi still dominates is being contested by funded Chinese builders and, on a patent study out this week, possibly by ASML." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Silicon" published: 2026-10-16T18:14:46.848Z modified: 2026-10-16T18:14:46.848Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/naura-pays-405-million-yuan-for-a-loss-making-chip-stacking-toolmaker-huawei-and-cxmt-build-on-the-step language: en keywords: "Semiconductors, China, Chip Equipment, M&A, Memory" --- # NAURA pays 405 million yuan for a loss-making chip-stacking toolmaker; Huawei and CXMT build on the step > NAURA Technology is paying 405 million yuan for a loss-making hybrid-bonding toolmaker, buying into the packaging step Huawei's LogicFolding chips and CXMT's 4F² DRAM now both rely on. The segment Besi still dominates is being contested by funded Chinese builders and, on a patent study out this week, possibly by ASML. [NAURA Technology](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/naura-technology-group), China's largest chip-equipment maker, [agreed on October 15, 2026, to pay 405 million yuan in cash](https://gmteight.com/content/detail/441295) for Nuohe Jianwei, a Beijing maker of hybrid-bonding equipment [1]. China's tool sector is buying into the packaging step its chip designers now build around [2], and buying it before it earns [1]. The seller is the Beijing Integrated Circuit Equipment Industry Investment and Acquisition Phase II Fund, a state fund that held the target [1]. Nuohe Jianwei ran at an operating and net loss in 2025 and in the first half of 2026, because hybrid-bonding tools spend years in iteration and customer qualification before revenue arrives [1]. ## Hybrid bonding is the step Huawei and CXMT build around Hybrid bonding joins stacked dies with direct copper connections where solder bumps used to sit [3]. It is the key process behind 3D integration in system chips, stacked memory and chiplets [1]. ![Cross-section diagrams comparing 2D, 2.5D and 3D integrated circuit packaging](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/317d8ae5187b2a30.png) *A single die on a substrate (2D), dies side by side on an interposer (2.5D), and dies stacked and connected vertically (3D): the 3D integration hybrid bonding enables. (Copparihollmann)* [Huawei](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/huawei)'s Kirin 9050 Pro, the first mass-produced chip built on LogicFolding, an architecture that stacks active silicon layers, carries more than 50 million hybrid bonds [4][5]. [ChangXin Memory (CXMT)](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/cxmt), the Chinese DRAM maker now fourth in world DRAM revenue, bonds the same way in [the 4F² memory cell it unveiled on October 10](https://theinference.org/article/cxmt-targets-4f2-dram-years-ahead-of-samsung-and-naura-collects-the-tool-bill) [6]. The 4F² name means the cell occupies four times the square of the smallest feature a fab can print [6]. Stacking is how both companies keep advancing without the extreme-ultraviolet lithography US rules deny them [4][6]. ## Export rules route the tool bill to builders at home US export controls keep American toolmakers out of CXMT's advanced lines, and Beijing requires new fab capacity to draw at least half its equipment from domestic makers [6]. Huawei is assembling a home-grown tool chain with NAURA and AMEC, a Chinese etch-tool maker, behind its packaging roadmap [5]. NAURA says Nuohe Jianwei's shipped tools reach nanoscale alignment and have won repeat orders, with leading customers still in validation or order talks [1]. The scarce thing is a machine a running fab will buy at volume: China still leans on imported bonding equipment, according to [a Huaan Securities report](https://www.msn.com/en-xl/technology/tech-companies/asml-eyes-hybrid-bonding-report-finds-as-chinese-firms-adopt-chip-packaging-technique/ar-AA2enCMW) [4], and memory makers are too busy selling everything on the qualified old process to switch tools [3]. ## The prize is a tool a running fab buys at volume Turning a designed cell into tools a fab runs at volume is where the money in this story sits [6]. That is what NAURA is paying 405 million yuan to do [1]. ## Besi's price counts a franchise now contested from two sides BE Semiconductor Industries, the Dutch bonding-tool maker known as [Besi](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/be-semiconductor), leads this segment, and Bernstein expects it to make three of every four hybrid bonders shipped in 2028 [3][7]. [UBS puts the hybrid-bonding revenue implied by Besi's share price at about €936 million for 2030](https://theinference.org/article/ubs-cuts-besi-to-159-after-it-raised-its-2-2-billion-target-the-order-book-decides-october-22) [3]. The bank's own forecast is €424 million [3]. The gap between those two numbers is the contestable ground in the shares. ## Twenty-seven ASML filings point at a rival hybrid bonder On October 16 the shares fell 3%, after [SemiAnalysis](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/semianalysis), a research firm, published [an analysis of 27 ASML patent filings pointing to a hybrid bonder](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/besi-shares-fall-on-report-asml-is-working-on-rival-hybrid-bonding-product/ar-AA2enmgL) from the lithography giant [7]. [ASML](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/asml) has not confirmed it is developing one [7]. SemiAnalysis says it believes ASML could gain an edge in alignment accuracy and particle control, the two factors it says set bonding yield, because ASML solves the same problems in lithography [4]. That is a research firm's stated belief, not a shipped product [4][7]. *Chart: **UBS's target sits below Besi's price; BofA's sits above** Besi share price, 52-week high and two bank price targets, in euros per share* *Bank price targets are estimates; the closing price and the 52-week high are market quotes, not targets. Targets from bank notes dated October 6 and 7, 2026; quotes from October 15, 2026. Sources: The Inference, October 15, 2026. [3]* ## What October 22 and October 30 will decide Besi reports its third-quarter order book on October 22, 2026, and the number to beat is the second quarter's €292.9 million of orders [3]. The tell is repeat production orders from memory makers rather than evaluation systems [3]. NAURA follows with third-quarter results on October 30, 2026 [8]. Its first half showed the cost of this stage: revenue grew about 25% while profit grew 5%, research spending taking the difference [6][8]. ## October 22 tests the volume, October 30 the margin October 22 will show whether memory makers are buying bonding tools at volume yet, and what that does to the €936 million of 2030 bonding revenue Besi's price assumes [3]. October 30 will show whether NAURA's tool sales arrive as margin or as research spend [8]. Until both readings land, the risk sits with holders of Besi's assumed growth and holders of NAURA's margin. ## Takeaway NAURA is buying into hybrid bonding before it earns, putting a funded Chinese builder inside the stacking step Huawei's LogicFolding chips and CXMT's 4F² DRAM both use. Besi still dominates the segment and ASML's entry is unconfirmed; Besi's October 22 order book and NAURA's October 30 results carry the proof. ## Sources 1. [GMT EIGHT, NAURA Technology Group (002371.SZ) plans to acquire 100% equity of Nuohe Jianwei for 405 million yuan, October 15, 2026](https://gmteight.com/content/detail/441295) 2. [DIGITIMES, Chinese chip toolmakers buy into hybrid bonding as Huawei looks beyond transistor shrinking, October 16, 2026](https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20261016VL200/huawei-transistor-equipment-packaging-asml.html) 3. [The Inference, UBS cuts Besi to €159 after it raised its €2.2 billion target; the order book decides October 22, October 15, 2026](https://theinference.org/article/ubs-cuts-besi-to-159-after-it-raised-its-2-2-billion-target-the-order-book-decides-october-22) 4. [South China Morning Post via MSN, ASML eyes hybrid bonding, report finds, as Chinese firms adopt chip packaging technique, October 15, 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-xl/technology/tech-companies/asml-eyes-hybrid-bonding-report-finds-as-chinese-firms-adopt-chip-packaging-technique/ar-AA2enCMW) 5. [EE Times Asia, Huawei's Tau Scaling Law Moves Into Commercial Silicon, October 12, 2026](https://www.eetasia.com/huaweis-tau-scaling-law-moves-into-commercial-silicon/) 6. [The Inference, CXMT targets 4F² DRAM years ahead of Samsung, and NAURA collects the tool bill, October 15, 2026](https://theinference.org/article/cxmt-targets-4f2-dram-years-ahead-of-samsung-and-naura-collects-the-tool-bill) 7. [Reuters via MSN, Besi shares fall on report ASML is working on rival hybrid bonding product, October 16, 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/besi-shares-fall-on-report-asml-is-working-on-rival-hybrid-bonding-product/ar-AA2enmgL) 8. [MT Newswires via MarketScreener, NAURA Technology Unit to Acquire Hybrid Bonding Equipment Maker for 405 Million Yuan, October 15, 2026](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/naura-technology-unit-to-acquire-hybrid-bonding-equipment-maker-for-405-million-yuan-ce785dd3d080f021) --- NAURA pays 405 million yuan for a loss-making chip-stacking toolmaker; Huawei and CXMT build on the step — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/naura-pays-405-million-yuan-for-a-loss-making-chip-stacking-toolmaker-huawei-and-cxmt-build-on-the-step