Absolics, which is building a factory in Covington that will craft vital components for making semiconductors, will receive grant funding from a federal program designed to boost domestic computer chip manufacturing.
The Biden-Harris administration announced Thursday it has committed up to $75 million to help fund material development and construction of the Georgia factory, a pivotal step in creating a domestic supply chain for computer chips.
Absolics, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, makes a glass substrate that will be used to package computer chips together. The products will then be shipped to Asia for final assembly into computer chips. But state and company officials said during a 2022 groundbreaking that the new technology could eventually lead to full semiconductor production in the Peach State.
The company first announced the project in 2021. Absolics is building an 120,000 square-foot facility near SKC Drive and I-20.
Credit: Courtesy Absolics
Credit: Courtesy Absolics
It will receive the grant funding under the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion package President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 to help bolster domestic technology manufacturing.
Computer chip manufacturing is concentrated in Asia, but it’s a massive industry that provides critical technology for everything from mobile phones to medical equipment to automobiles. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, called this an industry that’s “crucial to our national security.”
“It is strategically essential that the United States have this domestic manufacturing capacity,” he said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for the state of Georgia to lead the nation in (semiconductor-related) manufacturing and innovation.”
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a chip shortage that rippled through the global economy. Federal officials said facilities like Absolics will help insulate the U.S. from future supply chain constraints.
“An important part of the success of President Biden’s CHIPS program is ensuring the United States is a global leader in every part of the semiconductor supply chain,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a news release. “The advanced semiconductor packaging technologies Absolics is working on will help to achieve that goal, while also creating hundreds of jobs in Georgia.”
The factory is expected to employ 410 workers and represent a $600 million investment. At its groundbreaking, company officials said the facility would open in mid-2024. An updated timeline has not been released.
Absolics was the first economic development project heralded by Gov. Brian Kemp when he took office, and his office credited state and local policies for its success — not federal programs.
“As we still see today, thanks to our business-friendly environment and reliable infrastructure, partnerships like these really start at the state and local level, not in Washington D.C. where burdensome mandates and red tape rule the day,” said Garrison Douglas, Kemp’s spokesperson.
Absolics’ Covington facility will make glass-based substrates, which attach chips to circuit boards. The glass technology was developed in part by former Georgia Tech electrical engineering professor Sung Jin Kim, who now works for SK Group. The company said using glass rather than plastic, the current industry standard, allows more chips to be packaged on a single device while using less energy.
Credit: Courtesy Absolics
Credit: Courtesy Absolics
The factory will only make the substrates, so they’ll have to travel back to Asia for final assembly before potentially returning to the U.S. as finished semiconductors to be inserted in products of all sorts. Gary Park, Absolics chief operating officer, said in 2022 that more chip manufacturing operations could move to the U.S. with time.
“We don’t want to move all the glass (substrates) to Asia and come back here again,” Park said. “So we believe that once our technology is proven, I think our customers will move to the U.S. That is our target, and I think that is very feasible.”
The proposed funding for Absolics is the first commercial project in the semiconductor supply chain to obtain CHIPS funding. The U.S. Department of Commerce said it has received more than 660 statements of interest in addition to hundreds of applications from companies and suppliers seeking CHIPS grants to support domestic technology projects.
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