ACM Research (ACMR) Risk Analysis

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that a seller does not own but rather has borrowed, or intends to borrow, from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities at a later date to return to the lender. A short seller hopes to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the sale of the borrowed securities and the purchase of the replacement shares, as the short seller expects to pay less in that purchase than it received in the sale. As it is in the short seller's interest for the price of the stock to decline, some short sellers publish, or arrange for the publication of, opinions or characterizations regarding the relevant issuer, its business prospects and similar matters calculated to or which may create negative market momentum, which may permit them to obtain profits for themselves as a result of selling the securities short. The use of the Internet, social media, and blogging have allowed short sellers to publicly attack a company's credibility, strategy and veracity by means of so-called "research reports" that mimic the type of investment analysis performed by legitimate securities research analysts. Issuers with limited trading volumes or substantial retail stockholder bases can be particularly susceptible to higher volatility levels, and can be particularly vulnerable to such short attacks. Short seller publications are not regulated by any governmental or self-regulatory organization or any other official authority in the United States and are not subject to the certification requirements imposed by the SEC in Regulation Analyst Certification. Accordingly, the opinions they express may be based on distortions of actual facts or, in some cases, outright fabrications. In light of the limited risks involved in publishing such information, and the significant profits that can be made from running successful short attacks, short sellers will likely continue to issue such reports. Short-seller publications may create the appearance or perception of wrongdoing, even when they are not substantiated, and may therefore affect the reputation or perception of our company and management. While we intend to strongly defend our public filings against any such short seller attacks, in many situations we could be constrained, for example, by principles of freedom of speech, applicable state law or issues of commercial confidentiality, in the manner in which we are able to proceed against the relevant short seller. Such short-seller attacks have caused, and may cause in the future, temporary or possibly long term, declines in the market price of Class A common stock and possible litigation initiated against us.

Our charter provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for: - any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;- any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed to us, our stockholders, creditors or other constituents by any of our directors, officers, other employees, agents or stockholders;- any action asserting a claim arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our charter or bylaws, or as to which the Delaware General Corporation Law confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; or - any action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. By becoming a stockholder in our company, you will be deemed to have notice of and have consented to the provisions of our charter related to choice of forum. The choice of forum provision in our charter may limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees, agents or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our charter to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. Our charter and bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following: - our dual class common stock structure provides holders of Class B common stock with the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the total number of outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock;- when the outstanding shares of Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of common stock;- amendments to our charter or bylaws will require the approval of two-thirds of the combined vote of our then-outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock;- vacancies on the board of directors will be able to be filled only by the board and not by stockholders;- the board, which currently is not staggered, will be automatically separated into three classes with staggered three-year terms;- directors will only be able to be removed from office for cause; and - our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting and not by written consent;- only our chair, our chief executive officer or a majority of our directors is authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;- advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders;- our charter authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established, and shares of which may be issued, without stockholder approval; and - cumulative voting in the election of directors is prohibited. As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding voting stock from engaging in certain business combinations with us. Any provision of our charter or bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of Class A common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for Class A common stock.

Class B common stock has twenty votes per share and Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of February 25, 2025, stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, who consist principally of our executive officers, employees, directors and their respective affiliates, collectively held 62.3% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Because of the twenty-to-one voting ratio between Class B and Class A common stock, holders of Class B common stock collectively will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of Class A common stock and therefore be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of Class B common stock represent at least 4.8% of all outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future. This concentrated control could also discourage a potential investor from acquiring Class A common stock due to the limited voting power of such stock relative to the Class B common stock and might harm the market price of Class A common stock. Because of the market capitalization achieved by Class A common stock during October 2020, the trigger included in our charter pursuant to which all of the shares of Class B common stock must convert into Class A common stock no longer applies. Instead, all of the Class B common stock generally will convert into Class A common stock only upon the election of the holders of a majority of the then-outstanding shares of Class B common stock, and specific shares of Class B common stock will convert into Class A common stock upon future transfers by the holders of those shares. The potential conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term.

The trading market for Class A common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade the Class A common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the Class A common stock price would likely decline. In addition, if one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of the Class A common stock or fails to publish reports about the Class A common stock on a regular basis, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the Class A common stock price or trading volume to decline.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission initially launched the STAR Market in June 2019 and trading on the Market began in July 2019. In November 2021 ACM Shanghai completed the STAR Listing and the STAR IPO. We believe we are one of the first publicly traded U.S. companies to complete an initial public offering of shares of a mainland China subsidiary on the STAR Market. As a result, no assurance can be given regarding the effect of the STAR Listing and the STAR IPO on the market price of the Class A common stock. The market price of Class A common stock may be volatile or may decline, for reasons other than the risk and uncertainties described above, as the result of investor negativity or uncertainty with respect to the impact of the STAR Listing and STAR IPO. In addition, investors may elect to invest in our business and operations by purchasing ACM Shanghai shares on the STAR Market rather than purchasing ACM Research Class A common stock, and that reduction in demand could lead to a decrease in the market price for the Class A common stock.

The market price of Class A common stock has been, and could continue to be, subject to significant fluctuations. The market price of Class A common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including: - actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other operating results;- the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;- actions of securities analysts who initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;- changes in projections for the chips or chip equipment industries or in the operating performance or expectations and stock market valuations of chip companies, chip equipment companies or technology companies in general;- changes in operating results;- any changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public, our failure to meet these projections, or changes in recommendations by any securities analysts that elect to follow Class A common stock;- additional shares of Class A common stock being sold into the market by us or our existing stockholders or the anticipation of such sales;- price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;- lawsuits threatened or filed against us;- litigation and other developments relating to our patents or other proprietary rights or those of our competitors;- developments in new legislation and pending lawsuits or regulatory actions, including interim or final rulings by judicial or regulatory bodies; and - general economic trends, including changes in the demand for electronics or information technology or geopolitical events such as war or acts of terrorism, or any responses to such events. In recent years, the stock market in general, and Nasdaq in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to changes in the operating performance of the companies whose stock is experiencing those price and volume fluctuations. Further, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company's securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Similar litigation may be instituted against us in the future, which could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management's attention and resources.

Since ACM Shanghai completed the STAR Listing, it has been subject to accounting, disclosure and other regulatory requirements of the STAR Market. At the same time, ACM Research remains subject to accounting, disclosure and other regulatory requirements of the SEC and the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq. As a result, ACM Research and ACM Shanghai periodically will disclose information simultaneously pursuant to differing laws and regulations. Even though substantially all of the operations of ACM Research are currently conducted through ACM Shanghai, the information disclosed by the two companies will differ, and may differ materially from time to time, due to the distinct, and potentially inconsistent, accounting standards applicable to the two companies and disclosure requirements imposed by securities regulatory authorities, as well as differences in language, culture and expression habit, in composition of investors in the United States and mainland China, and in the capital markets of the United States and mainland China. Differing disclosures could lead to confusion or uncertainty among investors in the publicly traded shares of one or both companies. Differences between the price of ACM Shanghai shares on the STAR Market and the price of ACM Research Class A common stock on Nasdaq could lead to increased volatility, as some investors seek to arbitrage price differences. Moreover, such volatility could be exacerbated by the fact that ACM Shanghai shares currently represent substantially all of the assets of ACM Research.

In November 2021, we completed the STAR Listing and STAR IPO with respect to shares of ACM Shanghai. ACM Shanghai is our principal operating company and, prior to the STAR Listing process, was a wholly owned subsidiary of ACM Research. As the result of actions taken in connection with the STAR Listing and the STAR IPO, ACM Shanghai is no longer a wholly owned subsidiary of ACM Research, and the interests of ACM Shanghai may diverge from the interests of ACM Research and its other subsidiaries in the future. We may face conflicts of interest in managing, financing or engaging in transactions with ACM Shanghai, or allocating business opportunities between our subsidiaries, including future arrangements for operating subsidiaries other than ACM Shanghai to license and use our intellectual property. Substantially all of our intellectual property has been developed in mainland China and is owned by ACM Shanghai. As we expand our global operations through operating subsidiaries outside of mainland China, those operating subsidiaries may need to license intellectual property from ACM Shanghai in order to operate, and there can be no assurance that conflicts of interest will not preclude those operating subsidiaries from licensing the required intellectual property from ACM Shanghai on reasonable terms or at all. ACM Research retains majority ownership of ACM Shanghai since the STAR IPO, but ACM Shanghai is managed by a separate board of directors and officers and those directors and officers will owe fiduciary duties to the various stakeholders of ACM Shanghai, including shareholders other than ACM Research. In the operation of ACM Shanghai's business, there may be situations that arise whereby the directors and officers of ACM Shanghai, in the exercise of their fiduciary duties, take actions that may be contrary to the best interests of ACM Research. In the future, ACM Shanghai may issue options, restricted shares and other forms of share-based compensation to its directors, officers and employees, which could dilute ACM Research's ownership in ACM Shanghai. In addition, ACM Shanghai may engage in capital raising activities in the future that could further dilute ACM Research's ownership interest. For example, in September 2025, ACM Shanghai completed a private offering, in which ACM Shanghai sold 38,601,326 ordinary shares at price per share of RMB 116.11, raising net proceeds of RMB 4.4 billion (approximately US $623.0 million) after deducting offering-related expenses (the "Private Offering"). The proceeds are intended to be used by ACM Shanghai for research and development, capital expenditures and working capital. As a result, our ownership interest in ACM Shanghai declined to 74.6%.

On November 15, 2024, the Office of Investment Security of the U.S. Department of the Treasury published in the Federal Register a final rule to implement President Biden's August 2023 Executive Order on Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern (the EO). The EO provided for the establishment of a new and targeted national security regulatory framework directed at controlling outbound investment from the United States in certain sensitive industry sectors in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau (collectively, China). This final rule went into effect January 2, 2025. The OISP was amended by the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act ("COINS Act") which was signed into law on December 18, 2025, although the provisions of the COINS Act will not come into effect until the Department of the Treasury issues implementing regulations, which by law must occur by March 2027. As implemented by the final rule, the framework imposes notification requirements and prohibitions on specified investments by U.S. persons in the semiconductor and microelectronics sector, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. These restrictions apply not only to investments in China, but also to certain investments outside of China. The OISP regulations in effect today could also be interpreted to restrict certain types of private investment in ACM Research in the United States, although these measures do not impact investment in ACM Research's publicly traded securities. The COINS Act reverses the possible application of the OISP to certain U.S. companies, including ACM Research, and therefore it appears ACM Research will not be subject to the OISP's private investment restrictions once the provisions of the COINS Act enter into force in 2026 or 2027. Within the semiconductor and microelectronics sector, prohibited investments will include certain covered investments in electronic design automation software; certain fabrication and advanced packaging tools; the design, fabrication, or packaging of certain advanced integrated circuits, and supercomputers. Notifiable investments will include any covered investments related to the design, fabrication, or packaging of integrated circuits not otherwise covered by the prohibition. Given the breadth of the notification requirement as applicable within the semiconductor industry, we will likely be subject to increased regulatory burden to engage in certain investments in the PRC and other countries. Until the issuance of COINS Act implementing regulations in 2026 or 2027, ACM Research may also be subject to restrictions on raising capital through private investments. Such a mechanism could negatively impact our ability to realize value from certain existing and future investments, including by limiting exit opportunities or causing us to favor buyers or investors that may avoid complex notification requirements or even outright prohibitions, even in circumstances where other buyers may offer better terms or more consideration. There can be no assurances that we will be able to maintain or proceed with investments on terms acceptable to us. It is possible that the outbound investment reporting requirements and prohibitions could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.