For Hubei Dinglong, a business built on printer toner is increasingly being reshaped by materials that polish and pattern silicon wafers.

The Wuhan-based company reported 3.66 billion yuan ($544 million) in revenue in 2025, with semiconductor material and chip business contributing 57 percent of the total, after growing 37.3 percent year-on-year. Revenue from printing consumables, once its defining business, fell 13 percent to 1.56 billion yuan, according to its annual report.

Dinglong's shift began with an internal question: Could the chemistry used to make printer toner particles be redirected toward chipmaking?

"The opportunity came when our toner team found that previous experience in high-purity inorganic synthesis, surface modification and colloid chemistry could be applied to CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) slurry's nanoscale abrasive particles," said Zhu Shunquan, general manager of the company.

CMP materials have