The U.S. Department of Commerce finalized an award of up to $75 million in CHIPS Act direct funding to Absolics for a facility in Covington, Georgia. The plant is part of the semiconductor supply chain, but it is not a conventional chip fab: it is designed to make glass substrates used to package advanced chips, not finished processors or memory chips.
What is Absolics building in Georgia?
Absolics plans to manufacture glass substrates for advanced semiconductor packaging at a 120,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Newton County. The project has expected capital expenditures of about $343 million, according to the federal project page. The $75 million award is federal support toward that project, not its total cost. NIST’s project overview describes the facility, expected investment and award terms.
Absolics is a U.S.-operating company connected to South Korean advanced-materials company SKC. Calling the project simply a South Korean factory misses both parts of the picture: the company is tied to SKC, while the manufacturing site and its planned production are in Georgia. Commerce’s final-award announcement identifies the company and project.
Why this is not a computer-chip fab
A chip fab makes semiconductor dies on wafers. Absolics’ project concerns a material used later in the production chain: a substrate that serves as a base or carrier within an advanced package, helping connect and organize chip components. The facility is therefore aimed at packaging materials, not at manufacturing complete CPUs, GPUs or memory chips.
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Advanced packages can combine multiple dies or chiplets and connect processors with high-bandwidth memory. Those systems must manage dense connections, power, heat and signal integrity—challenges that matter for AI accelerators, high-performance computing and data centers. Commerce says glass substrates are intended to support denser interconnections and may enable improvements in performance, power use and system integration. These are expected technology benefits, not proof that every commercial product will achieve them.
The policy rationale reaches beyond wafer fabs. Commerce has described the advanced-packaging substrate market as concentrated in Asia, making domestic materials production one way to broaden U.S. supply options. Whether the technology becomes commercially competitive will depend on factors such as manufacturing yields, reliability, equipment compatibility, customer qualification and cost.
How the $75 million award came about
- May 23, 2024: Commerce and Absolics signed a nonbinding preliminary memorandum of terms for up to $75 million. That announcement was not a finalized award or an unconditional cash transfer. Commerce’s preliminary-terms announcement gives the initial terms.
- December 5, 2024: After due diligence, Commerce announced the final CHIPS Program Office award. Payments are tied to project milestones, rather than being described as a single automatic payment of the full amount. The final award announcement records that step.
The distinction matters when describing the public money: “up to $75 million in direct funding” is more precise than saying the government paid Absolics $75 million at once. The CHIPS Act can support materials and other parts of the semiconductor supply chain, not only companies that fabricate finished chips.
What the project is expected to cost and support in jobs
The federal project page lists approximately $343 million in expected capital expenditures alongside the award of up to $75 million. These are different figures: the award is federal direct funding, while capital expenditure is the expected project investment. They should not be treated as interchangeable or as evidence that the federal government is covering the entire cost.
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Commerce’s initial estimate was more than 1,000 construction jobs and about 200 manufacturing and research-and-development jobs. Final-award materials describe the project as expected to support approximately 1,200 construction, manufacturing and R&D jobs in total. That is a combined estimate, not a promise of 1,200 permanent factory positions; construction work is temporary, and the permanent operating workforce is a smaller part of the total. The project page provides the federal job and investment figures.
Georgia Tech’s role and the local workforce effort
The project grew from work involving Georgia Tech’s 3D Systems Packaging Research Center, which is part of the effort to move glass-substrate technology from research toward commercial manufacturing. Georgia Tech is a research partner, not the owner of Absolics or the Covington plant. Georgia Tech’s account describes the university connection.
Federal project materials also identify workforce and education partners, including Georgia Piedmont Technical College. That connection matters because advanced packaging needs technicians and engineers as well as factory space; the government’s project terms include training and recruitment commitments.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is the facility’s status?
The timeline distinguishes a completed building from a fully operating commercial factory. SKC’s 2025 sustainability report said the Covington mass-production facility had been completed and prototypes were being produced. The federal project page lists first customer deliveries as expected in 2025 and production capacity as expected to begin in 2027. Those dates are projections, not confirmation that customer deliveries occurred or that full-volume production is underway. As of August 18, 2026, the available official material supports prototype and commercialization activity, but does not establish that full-scale commercial production has begun.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →SKC’s 2026 materials describe continued product development and commercialization work, including “embedding” and “non-embedding” glass-substrate tracks. SKC’s 2026 newsroom update provides that company context; its 2025 sustainability report describes the facility and prototype status. For the federal milestones, see NIST’s project page.
A separate $100 million award followed
Absolics later received a separate $100 million award through the CHIPS for America National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program for its SMART Packaging Program. This is distinct from the earlier $75 million CHIPS Program Office manufacturing award. The two awards support related but separate activities, so describing them as one $175 million grant for the same factory purpose would obscure the difference. NIST’s SMART Packaging award page explains the later funding.
Water, energy and worker commitments
The federal project page lists commitments and goals in the award terms; they should not be read as completed results. They include commercially reasonable efforts to recycle at least 80% of process water onsite by the end of 2026, an aim for net-positive water impact by the end of 2030, and annual reporting on energy, water and waste. The terms also include a worker safety committee involving workers and management, alongside workforce training and recruitment programs. NIST’s project page sets out these commitments.
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