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Glass is one of humanity's oldest materials, but it may soon become essential for the most advanced computer chips used to power artificial intelligence. While silicon has long been the standard for electronics, companies are now shifting focus to build AI processors on thin panels of glass. This transition aims to create chips that are significantly more powerful, faster, and far more energy-efficient than current models. The goal is to solve the growing energy crisis in data centers while simultaneously improving the battery life of consumer devices.
This year, a South Korean company named Absolics intends to begin commercial production of these specialized glass panels. Major technology firms like Intel are also actively developing similar technology. If successful, glass-based chips could first reduce the massive energy requirements of AI data centers. Over time, as production costs decrease, this technology could improve the performance of laptops and mobile devices. The innovation represents a fundamental shift in how we construct the heart of modern computing.
The core idea involves using glass as a foundation, known in the industry as a substrate. In this "packaging" method, multiple silicon chips are connected onto this glass layer. Engineers favor this approach because it allows them to combine different specialized chips into one powerful system. However, the current method faces a major problem. Modern chips, particularly those designed for artificial intelligence, generate a significant amount of heat. This intense heat can cause the existing organic substrates to warp or bend. When the foundation bends, the delicate chips on top can become misaligned. Such misalignment can cause chips to overheat, perform poorly, or fail prematurely.
"As AI workloads surge and package sizes expand, the industry is confronting very real mechanical constraints," says Deepak Kulkarni of chipmaker AMD. "One of the most fundamental is warpage."
This is where glass becomes a critical solution. It handles high temperatures much better than the current organic materials used in the industry. Glass resists warping, which gives engineers more freedom to make chip packages smaller and more densely packed with components. This density leads to faster data transfer and lower power consumption. Glass "unlocks the ability to keep scaling package footprints without hitting a mechanical wall," explains Kulkarni. Without this material breakthrough, the continued miniaturization and increasing power of AI chips would become physically impossible.
Progress in this field is moving quickly. Absolics has finished building a factory in Georgia, USA, dedicated to making glass substrates. It plans to start commercial production very soon. Intel is working to include glass in its next-generation chip packages. Its research has encouraged other companies in the supply chain to invest in the technology. South Korean and Chinese companies are among the early leaders in this sector. "Historically, this is not the first attempt to adopt glass in semiconductor packaging," says analyst Bilal Hachemi. "But this time, the ecosystem is more solid and wider; the need for glass-based [technology] is sharper."
Since the 1990s, chip packaging has mainly used organic substrates made from materials like fiberglass. But these materials have significant limits, says Rahul Manepalli, an Intel packaging expert. The materials can shrink and distort unpredictably as chips heat up and cool down. They also limit how many tiny electrical connections designers can pack into a small space. This restricts the overall efficiency and power of the final device.
Glass can overcome many of these limitations. Its stability allows engineers to create up to ten times more electrical connections per millimeter than organic materials, says Manepalli. With denser connections, designers can fit 50% more silicon chips into the same package area. This boosts computing power significantly. The dense connections also make it easier to route power efficiently to the chips. Furthermore, glass spreads heat away from chips more effectively, which can lead to designs that use less power overall.
"The benefits of glass core substrates are undeniable," says Manepalli. "It's clear that the benefits will drive the industry to make this happen sooner rather than later."
However, working with glass is difficult because it is fragile. The glass panels for data center chips are incredibly thin—only about 0.7 to 1.4 millimeters thick. This makes them prone to cracking if not handled with extreme care. Researchers at Intel and elsewhere have spent years learning how to handle these delicate panels safely within the complex semiconductor manufacturing process. It required a complete rethinking of the manufacturing workflow to ensure reliability.
Manepalli says Intel's teams are now reliably making glass panels and test packages. In early 2025, they successfully booted the Windows operating system on a functional device with a glass-core substrate. This is a big step forward from early tests, where hundreds of panels could crack in just a few days. This success proves that the technology is moving from experimental stages to practical application.
The market for this technology could be very large. Research firm IDTechEx estimates the market for glass in semiconductors could grow from about $1 billion in 2025 to as much as $4.4 billion by 2036. These figures highlight the massive investment interest in the future of glass substrates.
Glass offers other potential benefits beyond stability. It can be made extremely smooth—5,000 times smoother than organic substrates. This ultra-smooth surface reduces defects when metal layers are added to the chip, leading to better and more reliable performance, says research analyst Xiaoxi He. Fewer defects mean higher yields and lower costs in the long run.
Perhaps most excitingly, glass could one day use light, not electricity, to move data. Glass can guide light, meaning chip designers could build ultra-fast optical data pathways directly into the substrate. A light-based system could move signals with far less energy than the power-hungry copper wires used today. Glass "holds enormous potential for the future of energy-efficient AI compute," says Kulkarni. This capability could revolutionize how computers process information at the speed of light.
Early research on glass packaging began in 2009 at Georgia Tech. The university later partnered with Absolics, a subsidiary of a South Korean chemical company. This partnership received two U.S. government grants in 2024, worth a combined $175 million, through the CHIPS for America program. These funds were crucial for accelerating the development and manufacturing capabilities of the technology.
Now, Absolics is moving toward selling its products. It plans to begin manufacturing small quantities of glass substrates for customers this year. "Absolics has led the way in commercializing glass substrates," says Yongwon Lee, a research engineer at Georgia Tech. Their leadership has set a benchmark for the rest of the industry.
The company's new U.S. factory can produce a maximum of 12,000 square meters of glass panels per year. Lee estimates this is enough to make substrates for between 2 million and 3 million chip packages the size of a high-performance Nvidia H100 GPU. This production capacity is a significant milestone for the industry's transition.
But Absolics is not alone in this race. Lee says other large manufacturers, like Samsung and LG, have "significantly accelerated" their research and pilot production efforts in the past year. "This trend suggests that the glass substrate ecosystem is evolving from a single early mover to a broader industrial race," he explains. Competition is driving faster innovation and lower prices.
Other companies are finding specialized roles in the new supply chain. For example, a company called JNTC opened a facility in South Korea in 2025 capable of making 10,000 semi-finished glass panels each month. These panels have pre-drilled holes and metal coatings, ready for final assembly into chip packages. The company began taking orders last year and plans to expand production in 2026 and open another line in Vietnam in 2027. These moves show a global commitment to the technology.
These rapid developments show how glass substrate technology is quickly moving from the laboratory to the factory floor. A growing number of technology companies are betting that this ancient material could provide a surprisingly strong foundation for the future of computing and artificial intelligence. The shift from organic to glass represents a necessary evolution to meet the demands of the next generation of AI.