[Father of Chinese Etching Machine: AI may be a foam, and 90% of domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers will go bankrupt] Golden Finance reported on October 13th that Yin Zhiyao, Chairman and General Manager of Zhongwei Company, delivered a keynote speech on October 13th, warning against the current AI investment boom. Yin Zhiyao, the father of China's etching machine, said that the topic of AI is very hot now. Almost all meetings are about AI, but AI may have a foam, which needs more attention. He pointed out that capital expenditure in the semiconductor industry is directly linked to equipment procurement, with 70% to 80% of a company's capital expenditure being used for equipment procurement. The industry's capital expenditure can increase by up to 100% in a year, or decrease by 30% in a year, and there will be continuous downward fluctuations, which are very intense. Yin Zhiyao analyzed two reasons for the ups and downs. One is that each peak of the economic boom is often driven by a single product, and the next round may be driven by AI, but it has not yet fully arrived. The second is the impact of the global macroeconomic environment. Once an economic crisis occurs, pressure will be transmitted upwards along the industrial chain. When it comes to the industry landscape, Yin Zhiyao believes that industry integration is an inevitable trend. Compared with the United States, which has only a few dozen domestic semiconductor equipment companies left after multiple rounds of integration, the number of domestic semiconductor equipment companies is huge, conservatively estimated to be at least 500 and at most close to 1000. If we refer to this pattern, there may only be a few dozen domestic equipment manufacturers that can ultimately survive, which means that 90% of manufacturers will be eliminated.