The Zhitong Finance App learned that Cathay Pacific Haitong released a research report stating that the clean room business accounts for 10% to 20% of the capital expenditure of semiconductor projects. Benefiting from the downstream boom and policy support from various countries, the global semiconductor industry's capital expenditure continues to expand, driving the accelerated release of demand for supporting clean room engineering construction. Looking at the global cleanroom market space of about US$34.5 billion in 2026, CAGR +15.3% in 2026-2030. Fabs in Taiwan, South Korea, Europe, and the US will also form bonds with clean room companies in their respective regions. The bank recommended selecting leaders with competitive advantages, flexible performance, and valuation advantages.
Cathay Pacific Haitong's main views are as follows:
Clean rooms account for 10% to 20% of semiconductor project capital expenses. The business model includes general contracting and professional technical services
(1) Clean rooms are divided into 1 to 9 levels according to the degree of cleanliness. The cleaning grade requirements for semiconductor manufacturing are higher than those for food, medicine, etc. Among them, the photolithography process has the highest cleanliness level requirements. (2) The clean room business includes general contracting and professional technical services. The general contract is engineering consulting, design, project management and general engineering contracting for the overall project. Professional technical services include planning, design, procurement, system integration, secondary distribution, operation and maintenance of the clean room. The cleanroom business accounts for 10% to 20% of semiconductor project capital expenses. (3) Benefiting from the downstream boom and policy support from various countries, the global semiconductor industry continues to expand capital expenditure, driving the accelerated release of demand for supporting clean room engineering construction.
Semiconductor clean room 2025-2030 CAGR +15.3%, AI will drive a high increase in capital expenses
(1) The Foundry sector benefited from capital expenditure increases from leading companies such as TSMC, with a clean room engineering space of about US$11.1 billion in 2026 and a CAGR of 17.7% in 2026; advanced packaging flexibility in the OSAT sector, with a space of about US$2.9 billion in 2026, a 5-year CAGR of about 20%; Nonmemory IDMCAGR of about 0.45%; logic chips (non-storage) totaling US$19.4 billion in 2026 and US$28.3 billion in 2030, CAGR of about 13.7%. (2) The storage industry's DRAM cleanroom space is about US$11.4 billion in 2026 and US$16.2 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of about 18.4%; NAND increased to US$3.7 billion to US$5.6 billion, CAGR of about 15.3%. (3) Looking at the global cleanroom market space of about US$34.5 billion in 2026, US$40.8 billion (+18.2%) in 2027, US$50.1 billion in 2030, and CAGR +15.3% in 2026-2030.
The leading listed companies in clean rooms occupy the high-end market, and the world is showing regional and customer binding
(1) Judging from the domestic competitive landscape, the central state-owned enterprise general contracting leaders include CLP 2, CLP 4, and Taiji Industrial's Eleven Technology; Taiwanese professional system integration leaders such as Yaxiang Integration and Shenghui Integration are among the few domestic service providers with ISO1 ultra-high clean workshop delivery capabilities; local private enterprises include Baicheng Co., Ltd., which is deeply involved in the domestic high-end clean market, and Huakang Clean, which has entered the electronic cleaning business from the medical sector. (2) The global clean room market is regional. Local leaders undertake general contracting, and foreign professional manufacturers undertake clean room integration, such as Jacobs and Fluor in the US, and Samsung C&T in South Korea as local general package co-ordinated projects; Exyte, Taikisha, etc. are professional clean room technology providers. At the same time, fabs in Taiwan, South Korea, Europe, and the US will also form bonds with clean room companies in their regions.
Investment strategy: choose leaders with competitive advantages, flexible performance, and valuation advantages
(1) The competitive advantage of clean room engineering is reflected in the industrial chain and technical advantages. Yaxiang Integrated and Shenghui Integrated undertook Taiwanese projects through the semiconductor industry chain in Taiwan, China. Taiji Industrial's subsidiary Eleven Technology originated from the Four-Machine Division 11 Design Institute, Shenzhen Sanda belongs to the China Electronic Information Industry Group, Baicheng Co., Ltd. undertook SMIC, TSMC, and SK Hynix projects, and Huakang Clean moved from medical care to the electronics industry chain. Yaxiang Integration and Shenghui Integration have technical and project experience in undertaking IsoClass1 clean rooms. (2) Clean room companies' performance flexibility has benefited from the AI industry chain's capital expenditure exceeding expectations. Sorting out the AI industry chain 2026PE, chip design and wafer manufacturing are about 100 times more, and Yaxiang Integrated, Shenghui Integrated, Huakang Clean, and Baicheng Co., Ltd. currently 20 to 40 times that of Yaxiang Integration, Shenghui Integrated, Huakang Clean, and Baicheng Co., Ltd.
Risk warning: semiconductor capital expenditure is falling, project progress is slowing down, exchange rate and cost fluctuations.