Absolics' glass substrate / Captured from Absolics website
Competition for an early lead in glass substrates for computer chip manufacturing is heating up, with component firms projecting that the commercialization of this so-called "next-generation material" could happen sooner than initially anticipated.
According to the Korea Exchange, the stock price of chemical manufacturing company SKC jumped 44.4 percent from 109,700 won on Jan. 2 to 158,400 won on Wednesday, recording one of the sharpest increases among stocks listed on the benchmark KOSPI during the same period.
The jump seemed to be driven by investor expectations on the commercialization of the company's glass substrate. Last week, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won visited the booth of SKC, an affiliate of SK Group, at the CES 2025 tech trade show in Las Vegas. He then stated that he "just sold" SKC's glass substrates.
Since it was speculated that Chey had met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just before visiting the booth, his comment was presumed to mean that SKC was close to signing a deal with Nvidia for glass substrates, despite the company still being in the pre-mass production phase.
Glass substrates are believed to be the next-generation chip substrate, replacing conventional substrates based on plastic materials. Plastic substrates are lightweight and cost-effective, but have low heat resistance and are prone to warpage. To address these issues, manufacturers have been interposing silicon-based intermediate materials, called interposers, between chips and substrates. This method resulted in increased production costs and slower manufacturing processes.
LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuk-soo speaks during an interview with reporters at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Jan. 8. Courtesy of LG Innotek
Instead, glass substrates excel in resistance to heat and warpage, while allowing more chips to be stacked on a single substrate. It also offers a smoother surface, allowing ultra-fine circuit patterns to be transferred on the surface.
This results in semiconductor speeds increasing by up to 40 percent, while power consumption can be reduced by half. Experts often compare stacking chips on plastic substrates to "building a house on sand," while using glass substrates is like "building a home on a rock." As the chip industry increasingly focuses on stacking more chips on a single substrate, experts predict that the balance of power in the semiconductor sector could shift toward substrate manufacturers.
Due to these strengths, Intel, AMD and Broadcom have announced plans to adopt glass substrates for their next-generation chips. Intel has since invested $1 billion in the development of glass substrates, aiming for commercialization by 2030.
Among Korean companies, SKC is taking an early lead.
To advance glass substrate technology, SKC established Absolics in 2021, a 70:30 joint venture with Applied Materials, the world's largest semiconductor and display equipment company.
Absolics completed the construction of the world's first glass substrate mass-production facility in Georgia in the first half of last year, and received $75 million in production subsidies and $100 million in research and development (R&D) grants from the U.S. government.
Citing the company's R&D capabilities, the number of patents, mass production capacity and prospective client base, Meritz Securities analyst Roh Woo-ho said in October last year that SKC's Absolics is "the top-tier player" and the company maintains a technological lead of more than three years over its competitors.
The company is currently in discussions with global big tech firms and aims to commence mass production by the end of this year.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek are also accelerating their efforts in the glass substrate business.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics has established a pilot line at its plant in Sejong and plans to supply prototypes to clients this year, with mass production expected to begin after 2027.
During a press conference at CES 2025, Samsung Electro-Mechanics CEO Chang Duck-hyun said that "the [chip industry's] trend is moving from front-end [advanced chips] to packaging, substrates and the integration platform" and the company is "in talks with multiple clients [over glass substrates] with a plan of providing prototypes to two to three clients this year."
Similarly, LG Innotek is setting up a pilot line at its plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, and aims to begin manufacturing prototypes this year in a small-scale production.
"Glass substrate is the way we should go," LG Innotek CEO Moon Hyuk-soo said in an interview with reporters at CES 2025. "Glass substrates are expected to be commonly used in communication semiconductors within the next two to three years. For server semiconductors, they are projected to become a mainstream solution in about five years."