NVIDIA is currently evaluating the adoption of glass substrate solutions and has already begun collaborations with German equipment manufacturers such as SCHMID.
NVIDIA hopes that substrate manufacturers in South Korea, Japan, and the Taiwan region of China will complete the development of glass substrates within two years, with implementation expected as early as 2028.
During its first-half financial report briefing, SCHMID disclosed that the company is collaborating with key suppliers within the supply chains of Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD to jointly develop glass substrate equipment.
SCHMID Chief Strategy Officer Roland Rettenmeier stated that there are still technical challenges in the metallization process of Through-Glass Vias (TGV), and customer certification has not yet been completed.
Reports indicate that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang previously met with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss next-generation semiconductor cooperation, including glass substrates. NVIDIA is also actively promoting TSMC's development of glass substrate technology. These moves suggest that NVIDIA is seriously evaluating glass substrate solutions to enhance the performance of its next-generation GPUs.
Previously in May, NVIDIA and major glass substrate manufacturer Corning announced a multi-year strategic partnership: NVIDIA will invest up to $2.7 billion in Corning and receive warrants; Corning will build three new advanced manufacturing facilities in the US, increasing its domestic optical interconnect capacity tenfold to specifically serve hyperscale AI data centers.
Glass substrates are a new generation of semiconductor packaging materials aimed at replacing traditional organic substrates. As AI chip performance continues to improve, organic substrates face technical bottlenecks such as insufficient heat resistance and warpage deformation.
In comparison, glass substrates offer superior flatness and rigidity, which can increase chip operating speeds by approximately 40% while reducing power consumption by nearly half.
A low coefficient of thermal expansion is another core advantage of glass substrates. They hardly deform in high-temperature environments, which is particularly crucial for high-performance AI chips that generate significant heat.
Furthermore, glass offers excellent dielectric properties and low signal loss, enabling more stable transmission of ultra-high-speed signals. As substrate sizes increase, deformation is reduced, allowing for the integration of more chips and HBM within a single package.
Huachuang Securities stated that glass core substrates for advanced semiconductor packaging have vast long-term growth potential, describing it as a "sea of stars." Driven by AI/HPC and HBM, the expansion of high-end advanced packaging is leading to larger package sizes. The trend toward panel-level packaging is expected to further amplify the advantages of glass in terms of large size, high flatness, and low warpage. Additionally, CPO and high-frequency RF applications are poised to continuously open up new application boundaries.
The institution further stated that from an industry chain perspective, the localization of raw glass sheets is still in its early stages. In terms of TGV (Through-Glass Via) hole formation and glass substrate processing, some domestic companies have achieved overseas equipment sales and small-batch repeat purchases. Regarding electroplating and metallization, some domestic companies have completed delivery testing for TGV additives and equipment, formed batch shipments, and are gradually ramping up production. RDL exposure and CMP equipment are also worth noting.