Investing an additional 20 billion! Intel, together with senior players, increases investment in glass substrates. Institutions: The industry is expected to enter the year of commercialization.

With the objective demand for AI development, the expectation for mass production of glass substrates is becoming more definite. Recently, the Indian government announced that chip giant Intel and 3D Glass Solutions (3DGS) will invest approximately $3.3 billion (about 22.3 billion RMB) to establish a semiconductor substrate manufacturing plant in the eastern state of Odisha in India. It is reported that the factory is planned to be completed within five to six years, to be built in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area, focusing on the production of glass substrates for advanced packaging technologies, high-density interconnect substrates, and other related semiconductor technologies. The Indian government has pledged to provide billions of dollars in subsidies and may create over 1800 direct high-skilled jobs. 3DGS was founded in 2005, an American semiconductor technology company that entered the field of semiconductor advanced packaging after 2014, with integrated passive devices (IPD) and glass substrate 3D packaging (3DHI) technology. In April of this year, the company's packaging factory supported by Intel has broken ground in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, India, with an estimated annual production of 50 million units of glass substrate 3D packaging. Intel's layout of glass substrates is not limited to the Indian region. Recent reports show that Intel plans to transform its Rio Rancho factory in New Mexico into the world's first mass production base for glass substrates. According to the latest progress, the company has established a glass substrate test line in the Chandler area of Arizona, and the Rio Rancho factory will introduce a mass production line for glass substrates, with space reserved for expanding, to support EMIB packaging technology. According to ETNews citing industry sources, Intel is currently advancing large-scale purchases of "materials, components, and equipment" orders to global supply chain partners, with several supply contracts already signed. The current investment scale is tens of trillion Korean won, focusing on expanding EMIB capacity and advancing technology upgrades, including incorporating glass substrate packaging solutions. Looking globally, giants are accelerating the mass production of glass substrates. Zhongtai pointed out that TSMC's CoPoS test line will start this year and achieve mass production by the end of 2028, with NVIDIA potentially being the first customer; Samsung Motors plans to start production in 2027 and is expected to enter a rapid penetration phase in 2028. 2026 is expected to be the first year of commercialization of glass substrates. Orient stated that the application of glass substrates in the field of advanced packaging is expected to mature gradually and can be used as recording media for HDD. Due to the high demand for high-capacity storage, the proportion of HAMR technology in solid-state drives is expected to continue to increase. HAMR technology uses a new type of media magnetic technology on each disk to make data bits smaller and denser than before while maintaining magnetic stability and thermal stability. The high-temperature characteristics of HAMR technology may make heat-resistant glass substrates an important choice to replace traditional aluminum discs. The latest forecast from the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) predicts that with the growth in demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC), the initial production of glass substrates may begin around 2028. According to the report, glass substrates are expected to enter the early production stage around 2028 for specific high-performance applications before expanding into a wider and more complex semiconductor packaging structure. Between 2028 and 2040, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the glass substrate market is expected to reach 67.2%. This article is reproduced from "Cai Lianshe," author: Zhang Zhen; GMTEight editor: Chen Siyu.