AMAT to acquire stakes in SKC’s glass substrate unit

US chip materials maker Applied Materials (AMAT) will acquire 51 billion won ($39 million) worth of Absolics shares, the chip glass substrate production arm of Korean chemicals company SKC.

According to SKC’s regulatory filing on Monday, Absolics will issue new shares to raise 165.9 billion won to expand its production facilities.

Of the 130,000 new shares, SKC and AMAT will acquire 90,000 and 40,000 shares, respectively. SKC alone will invest 114.8 billion won to acquire the shares.

“The new funding will be spent on Absolics’ new chip glass substrate plant in the US,” SKC said in the filing.

The Korean firm broke ground for the construction of the new plant, located in Covington, Georgia, in November last year.

Absolics plans to inject a total of $240 billion by the end of next year to build the 12,000-square-meter production facility. Production at the plant is expected to start in the second quarter of 2024.

Glass substrates are considered a game changer in semiconductor packaging, SKC said, as the substrates raise the performance and power efficiency of chips for high-performance computing.