SKC is taking up the Absolics shares that Applied Materials declined, lifting its stake in the US glass substrate unit to 82.37 percent from 70.05 percent and tightening control over a technology that packaging roadmaps increasingly depend on.
The Korean group will subscribe an extra KRW 92.1B, about $66M, in Absolics’ rights offering, taking its total commitment to roughly KRW 373.1B. Applied Materials, which held the other 29.95 percent, is estimated to buy only about KRW 28B of the KRW 120.2B worth of shares it was allocated. SKC moved the payment and acquisition date forward to September 28 from November 24.
Funding comes from SKC’s KRW 1.1671T rights offering earlier this year, of which KRW 590B was earmarked for glass substrates over three years. Glass cores resist warping better than organic ones and allow finer wiring, which is why Nvidia has asked suppliers to speed development. Rivals are moving too. BOE has produced 24-layer substrates larger than 100 by 100 millimetres and is running customer validation with server CPUs and GPUs, aiming at a production decision in the first half of 2027. Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek target output in 2027 and 2028.
