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In recent years, a large number of cross-border players have rushed into the OHT track, disrupting the industry with assembly imitation and low-price involution, turning many factories into testing grounds. The domestic AMHS industry is in a painful period of extensive development." said He Jun, CEO of Gtrontec, in an exclusive interview with Jiwei. With the ebb of capital frenzy, the domestic semiconductor AMHS industry is facing a turning point for reshuffling. Relying on TCL's rich business scenarios and committed to accelerating the soft-hardware integration of semiconductor factories with industrial AI, Gtrontec takes Stocker as a breakthrough, starts with OHT hardware landing, extends to whole-factory smart logistics solutions with algorithms and full-stack CIM capabilities, and simultaneously accelerates global implementation, aiming to become an industry flag bearer for domestic AMHS development.

Chaos abounds: AMHS track enters reshuffle cycle

AMHS is the 'blood vessel' of semiconductor factories, where OHT (Overhead Hoist Transport) serves as the core handling equipment, responsible for fully automatic wafer transport between hundreds of process machines. The AMHS investment for a 12-inch wafer production line is as high as 1.5-2 billion yuan, with annual maintenance costs thereafter reaching hundreds of millions. For a long time, this market has been monopolized by companies like Daifuku and Murata in Japan, with domestic localization rate below 10%. From 2022 to 2024, cross-border capital poured into the OHT track, and many companies without semiconductor process accumulation entered hastily, with OHT startup projects visible at industry exhibitions.

However, in the past few years, domestic AMHS development has not been on the right track. He Jun frankly stated that most entrants lack underlying self-development capabilities, relying on purchased components, copying overseas drawings for assembly, grabbing projects with ultra-low prices, and then using customer production lines for free trial production and debugging. Failures such as wafer dropping or system crashes are only compensated afterwards. Previously, an OHT fault at a wafer fab caused large-scale wafer damage, directly scrapping thousands of wafers, with the root cause being the lack of long-term reliability verification of the equipment. Low-price involution creates a vicious cycle: project bid inversion, difficulty in profitability, no funds for continuous deep cultivation of core scheduling algorithms and key component self-development. The entire industry generally stays at the 'assembly and OEM' level. Seemingly widespread localization, but in reality, core controllers, drives, and precision components still rely heavily on imports from Japan and South Korea, with very few truly self-developed algorithm teams.

"Many manufacturers assemble dozens of machines and claim a domestic breakthrough, just like assembling a Santana and thinking they can run on an F1 track. Catching up with Japan and South Korea in three to five years is completely unrealistic," He Jun said. "The semiconductor industry is serious. A small failure can shut down an entire production line. Why should customers pay for your trial and error?"

More severely, this unhealthy business model has trapped the industry in a vicious cycle: low-price competition - no R&D funds - technological stagnation. With tightening investment and financing environment and the ebbing capital frenzy, many small and medium-sized OHT manufacturers relying on financing to survive are facing a survival crisis. The industry has officially entered a clearing phase. Only platform-based companies with industrial resources and long-term R&D investment strength can survive the cycle.

He Jun called for the industry to return to rationality: "What we need are companies that truly respect the semiconductor industry and are willing to invest long-term, not speculators seeking quick profits."

Against this backdrop, in March 2024, Gtrontec completed the acquisition of Yunde and RuiXinKu, established Wilson Optimus, and officially entered the AMHS track, choosing Stocker (wafer storage library) as the core breakthrough for domestic localization, taking a differentiated path of implementation.

Hardcore Breakthrough: Stocker firmly in the domestic first tier

Unlike peers flocking to OHT, Gtrontec has anchored on Stocker as the core entry point into AMHS. Through independent R&D from zero to one, the company has grown into the manufacturer with the most complete Stocker product line in China, covering all categories such as standard Normal Stocker, cross-floor Tower Stocker, OHB, and NTB machine-side cache, adapting to 6/8/12-inch wafers, advanced packaging and testing, and third-generation semiconductor multi-scenario needs.

Looking back at the R&D process, the Gtrontec team initially only reverse-engineered from overseas equipment videos. After three upgrade iterations, the first prototype was finally delivered. The first-generation product scored only 70 points at SMIC. The team continued optimizing, eliminating belt structures and rack-and-pinion solutions, and finally finalized the wheel system architecture, benchmarking international top brands in stability, space utilization, and access efficiency.

Delivery data verifies product strength. According to the Gtrontec technical leader, as the provider of the first domestic Stocker, the company now has the largest shipment volume in China, with cumulative Stocker deliveries exceeding 150 units, deployed at leading domestic wafer and packaging & testing fabs such as SMIC, ChangXin Memory, and JCET. For top memory customers, Gtrontec's domestic Stocker is preferred over Japanese products. Project delivery efficiency breaks industry norms: regular projects complete from scheme confirmation to on-site acceptance in 45 days, benchmarking projects achieve equipment installation and debugging in just 15 days, several times faster than the average 6-month delivery cycle of Japanese brands, while product costs have significant advantages over imported equipment. "Stocker delivery speed is 40% faster than the industry average. We can achieve this speed due to modular design and localized supply chain," said the leader.

Relying on the customer trust and hardware manufacturing experience accumulated through Stocker implementation, Gtrontec has further improved its AMHS hardware matrix through self-development and self-production, covering all handling and storage scenarios, including OHT, Stocker, Conveyor, and NTB (near-machine cache equipment), building a stable and efficient hardware foundation. While Stocker shipments continue to grow, OHT is also iterating, strengthening performance and algorithms, and taking the lead in breaking through the scheduling algorithm for thousands of OHTs in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong. The latest OHT 3.0 version product performance has been further upgraded. The large-scale implementation of hardware products has laid a solid physical foundation for Gtrontec to upgrade from a single equipment supplier to a whole-factory solution provider.

Customer repurchase rate is the best test of product strength. Currently, Gtrontec's AMHS business customer repurchase rate exceeds 80%. "In this semiconductor industry, if customers continue to choose you when expanding production, that is the best recognition of the product," He Jun said. "We have already reached long-term strategic cooperation with several top customers, and their future expansion projects will prioritize our solutions."

Manufacturers that can participate in top customers' strategic planning, define product evolution directions, and withstand large-scale testing in real production environments can be called first-tier. Currently, Gtrontec is transforming from a 'viable domestic choice' to a 'priority planning partner for customer expansion.' On this basis, combined with the company's MCS and other software products, Gtrontec fully covers semiconductor logistics automation needs, becoming the only domestic company that can provide a complete domestic AMHS and supporting CIM software for semiconductor smart factory overall solutions.

He Jun concluded that Gtrontec's core competitiveness in the AMHS field has been upgraded to system-level delivery capability based on industrial AI. First, AI decision-making capabilities that understand production, with algorithms polished in real production lines; second, soft-hardware integrated system collaboration capability that ensures a closed loop from perception to decision to execution; third, continuously evolving knowledge accumulation capability, where each anomaly handling and scheduling optimization accumulates as system capability.

"What we deliver to customers is a smart logistics system that can continuously create value and self-optimize. That is our true competitive barrier."

AI Empowerment: Reshaping the whole-factory smart logistics solution

As the 'artery' for efficient operation of a semiconductor factory, the operating efficiency of AMHS directly determines the overall output rhythm. However, traditional AMHS scheduling models face multiple challenges, including system barriers causing data fragmentation, inability to efficiently integrate MES, MCS, and OHTC data; rigid scheduling leading to high OHT empty travel rate and long wait times under dynamic constraints; operation and maintenance response relying on experience, with fault location taking hours, etc.

He Jun believes that traditional AMHS can only help customers save money, while AI-empowered whole-factory smart logistics can help customers make money, which is the real value. To address this industry dilemma, Gtrontec has launched an AMHS smart logistics solution, providing a full-process solution for semiconductor factory material handling challenges.

Gtrontec's AI+AMHS smart logistics solution horizontally covers the full material flow scenario of a semiconductor factory from warehouse storage, inter-line transport to machine loading/unloading; vertically, with AI, multi-source data fusion, and Physical AI technology as core support, it creates an end-to-end closed-loop intelligent material handling decision system from 'brain decision' to 'limb execution.' The core of the solution consists of three layers: AMHS hardware matrix, intelligent scheduling hub, and intelligent agent cluster, forming a complete soft-hardware collaborative closed loop.

"The core competitiveness of traditional whole-factory logistics is reliability and stability, but in the AI era, intelligent decision-making capability will become the core variable determining system quality," he said. "Systems of traditional manufacturers like Daifuku are like old green trains. The tracks and architecture are already fixed, and no matter how optimized, they cannot achieve high-speed rail speed. We can use AI to redesign the entire system architecture, achieving a leap from 'execution layer' to 'decision layer.'"

Gtrontec's breakthrough is to use the AI logistics smart brain to redefine the value boundary of semiconductor logistics automation. This is an AI-driven intelligent motion control hub, with core value in breaking the motion control barriers between different manufacturers' equipment, uniformly controlling all types of robots, transport equipment, storage libraries, and even infrastructure like elevators across the factory. In traditional mode, when customers introduce AGVs, AMRs, CTUs, etc. from different suppliers, they often need to invest significant effort to solve integration and motion control challenges themselves. Gtrontec's logistics smart brain achieves cross-manufacturer and cross-type equipment collaboration through AI algorithms, allowing customers to no longer pay for the 'multi-brand mixing' motion control dilemma.

Behind this capability is the deep technical collaboration between Gtrontec and the University of Hong Kong Joint Laboratory. The two sides conducted research around the intelligent scheduling algorithm for thousands of OHTs, embedding AI decision-making capabilities into the full production and logistics chain. "Traditional rule-based scheduling algorithms can handle hundreds of devices, but when reaching thousands, severe congestion and efficiency decline occur," the Gtrontec technical leader said. "Our AI scheduling algorithm integrates real-time data from MES, MCS, and OHT to achieve global dynamic optimization, autonomously optimizing execution methods based on real-time status, with traffic efficiency improvement of up to 10%-50%."

The value brought by AI technology has been fully verified in actual projects. He Jun cited an example: In the TCL CSOT project, Gtrontec connected the full-chain data of production, logistics, and equipment, using AI algorithms to optimize whole-factory logistics, increasing the capacity of an already fully loaded factory by 20%-30%. "When our solution possesses 'human-like' scheduling decision-making capability, can seamlessly collaborate with production systems, autonomously handle anomalies, and continuously self-evolve, we have the ability to define the next-generation product," he emphasized. "This is the real opportunity for China's semiconductor whole-factory smart logistics to 'change lanes and overtake.'"

Furthermore, Gtrontec is actively promoting strategic extension from Physical AI to embodied intelligence, having initiated strategic cooperation with leading embodied intelligence companies in the industry. It is sinking AI capabilities from system software to hardware devices themselves, enabling each transport device not only to execute commands but also to have autonomous perception and local decision-making capability, truly achieving 'remote planning, local decision-making.' From AI logistics smart brain to embodied intelligent devices, Gtrontec's goal is to provide pan-semiconductor customers with a complete AI-based smart logistics solution.

Sail to Global: Brand upgrade and globalization layout accelerate

With continuous validation of domestic product implementation, Gtrontec is looking overseas. In 2025, the company unified its brand to Gtrontec, carrying the connotation of 'Global + Tron + Technology.' Whether serving domestic top customers or expanding overseas markets, it outputs using the same technical foundation and same brand image. Relying on differentiated AI solutions, it steadily deploys globally, with the overseas strategy prioritizing Southeast Asia and Middle East semiconductor agglomeration areas, gradually entering European and American markets, and simultaneously implementing projects following existing customers' overseas factory construction. This sends a clear signal to the global market that Gtrontec is an industrial technology company centered on AI.

He Jun said that the AI implementation environment in China and abroad differs significantly: domestic factories have fragmented data and confidentiality concerns, making AI co-creation more difficult; while overseas customers have a complete compliance system, unified data standards, and high trust. Once a customer grants access, they are willing to open data for collaborative iteration, making AI+AMHS implementation faster. Compared with Japanese and Korean brands, Gtrontec's competitiveness lies in providing customers with a complete value loop. First, the depth and breadth of market validation; second, end-to-end delivery and service efficiency; third, AI-empowered global optimization capability.

"The new brand image helps us engage with international customers on an equal technical footing, allowing customers to recognize at first glance that our technical foundation is AI. This is crucial for entering the international mainstream supply chain. It is an 'identity card,' demonstrating that we have the ability to participate in the highest level of global competition," He Jun pointed out. "More importantly, our differentiated AI+AMHS solution gives 'Made in China' a new competitive dimension on the AMHS track traditionally dominated by Japan and South Korea. In the past, overseas customers asked about Chinese AMHS: 'Can you produce it?' Now they ask: 'How much efficiency improvement can your AI scheduling bring compared to existing solutions?'"

Moreover, the overseas market's acceptance of AI+AMHS is even higher than domestic, and the focus of market demand has also shifted. In early years, selection priority was to confirm whether hardware could match Japanese products; now the focus is on efficiency gains brought by AI and full life-cycle service capabilities. With its AI global optimization advantage, Gtrontec breaks the inherent monopoly pattern of overseas manufacturers, builds overseas delivery service capabilities through local service network setup and regional spare parts warehouse layout, and continues to receive overseas wafer and advanced packaging & testing project orders. "Overseas data is clean, trust mechanisms are good, and joint innovation is easier to implement," He Jun said.

Currently, the company has established operating entities in Singapore and Malaysia, following domestic semiconductor customers going overseas while also expanding local new customers. "We first create overseas benchmarks in 8-inch and packaging & testing scenarios, then use AI differentiation to enter higher-end markets," He Jun emphasized. Internationalization is not only about selling products but also about long-term commitment to compliance and intellectual property. "Japanese and Korean companies will definitely sue Chinese companies with unclean IP in the future. Gtrontec has insisted on independent R&D from the beginning, with clean intellectual property. This is the passport to go global."

Stick to the original intention: Strive to be an industry 'flag bearer' with long-termism

Standing at the critical node of industry reshuffling, He Jun clearly stated that enterprises capable of carrying the development of domestic AMHS must meet three hard conditions: First, have sustained survival and service capability, with the backing of a large group or state capital for long-term investment; second, have genuine R&D capability to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies, not simple copying and assembly; third, have compliant intellectual property that does not bring future legal risks to customers.

"Gtrontec, backed by TCL, has the determination and capability for long-term investment. We are willing to be the flag bearer of this industry," He Jun said. In the next 3-5 years, the company will continue to invest hundreds of millions of yuan or more in technology R&D, striving for technological generation leadership. "Our goal is not to defeat anyone, but to truly solve bottleneck problems for China's semiconductor industry."

In the future, the company will focus on the three strategies of 'deepen, expand, and breakthrough': deepen existing OHT and Stocker product iteration, continuously optimize stability and manufacturing cost; expand third-generation semiconductor, advanced packaging, power devices, and other customized logistics solutions; break through frontier technologies such as cluster scheduling of over 1,000 devices, equipment embodied intelligence, Physical AI, and localization of core components, continuously increase algorithm joint R&D with universities like the University of Hong Kong, promote upgrading from post-fault handling to predictive intelligent scheduling, and achieve long-term AMHS agent autonomous prediction of process rhythm, preemptive material waiting, further reducing handling time. At the same time, collaborate with domestic precision machining, sensing, and drive component manufacturers to jointly tackle key technologies, gradually break the overseas stranglehold on core components, and simultaneously take the lead in participating in domestic AI+AMHS interface and data standard discussions, helping build domestic industry standards.

From starting with Stocker to becoming the domestic leader, to AI-driven whole-factory smart logistics solutions, and finally going global—Gtrontec's path is clear and pragmatic. He Jun finally said that AMHS industry construction requires two to three decades of long-term investment, abandoning the mindset of making quick money. Gtrontec will adhere to long-termism. In the short term, the company will deeply cultivate various types of wafer and packaging & testing production lines domestically to refine solutions; in the medium and long term, relying on the Gtrontec global brand, it will promote China's AI-driven smart logistics solutions to the world, break the decades-long monopoly of Japan and South Korea, truly achieve the transition from product substitution to technology originality of domestic AMHS, and help the domestic semiconductor smart logistics industry move steadily and far.