U.S. announces $75 mn grant for SKC’s Absolics

[Courtesy of SKC]

The United States Commerce Department announced on Thursday that it plans to grant 100 billion won ($75 million) to Absolics Inc., a glass substrates manufacturer affiliated with SKC, to build up a 120,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia that will supply advanced materials to the United States‘ chip industry. The move comes as glass substrates, a key component poised to revolutionize the world’s semiconductor industry, grow in importance.

“The latest grant recognizes the investments and commitments made by Absolics in advancing semiconductor glass substrate technology,” an industry observer who requested anonymity said.

SKC partnered with semiconductor equipment company Applied Materials (AMAT) in 2021 to develop glass substrates for chip packaging, which was when it founded Absolics.

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon and Han Yubin]

With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming mainstream in 2023, major tech firms have been vying to create high-performance chips. But as the industry grapples with the limitations of chip integration and micro-processing advancements, innovative solutions such as glass substrates are gaining traction.

Unlike traditional plastic substrates, glass alternatives can be made to be thinner and more energy-efficient, allowing for less power consumption by over 30 percent and faster computing.

Absolics plans to complete performance testing and trial operations off its Covington plant, built with a $300 million investment in Georgia in 2024, and begin full-scale production in the first half of the following year.