Absolics breaks ground on $600M site in Georgia
Absolics' Georgia site will make a glass substrate – a thin layer of glass on which processing and memory chips can be mounted together to create the brains of a computing system. The investment is set to create more than 400 high-skilled jobs in Georgia.
Absolics – a subsidiary of South Korea's SKC Co. Ltd. – has broken ground on a planned USD 600 million investment in Covington, Georgia, for its new manufacturing facility that will supply advanced materials to the U.S. semiconductor industry.
The glass substrate which will be produced at the site is said to significantly increase the performance and energy efficiency of chipsets. SKC and Absolics originally developed the technology as part of a research consortium with the Georgia Institute of Technology. Absolics is expected to be the first in the world to mass produce the material.
The plans for the new site was first announced back in October last year, back then the investment was expected to be in the size of USD 473 million. SKC and Absolics raised projections for the investment based on the need for more advanced manufacturing equipment to meet anticipated demand, a press release reads.
"Absolics will be an integral part of the semiconductor ecosystem in the U.S.," said Dr. Woncheol Park, President and Chief Executive Officer of SKC, in the press release. "We are pleased to build a factory and create hundreds of jobs that will have a positive impact on the city of Covington and the State of Georgia."
Absolics new Georgia facility will be built in two phases. The first phase, planned for completion by the end of 2023, will be a USD 240 million investment expected to create 140 jobs and focus on small-volume manufacturing. Mass production in this facility is expected to start in the second quarter of 2024.
The second phase is expected to be an additional USD 360 million investment that creates another 270 jobs and ramps up to high-volume manufacturing. This phase is anticipated to be completed over the next 3-5 years.
The inaugural product will be a thin piece of glass, approximately 3-by-3 inches, used to package different semiconductor components together. Processing, memory and logic chips can be mounted next to each other on the glass to create the core of a computing system.
Once the first phase is completed, Absolics expects to have an annual production capacity of 12,000 square metres with the second phase ramping up to an annual production capacity of 72,000 square metres.
