Sumitomo Chemical Unit Forms Glass Core Substrate Venture With Samsung Electro-Mechanics

Sumitomo Chemical's wholly owned Korean subsidiary Dongwoo Fine-Chem has signed a joint venture agreement with Samsung Electro-Mechanics to establish GlaSSEM, a company making glass core substrates for advanced semiconductor packages. The planned entity, based in Pyeongtaek, Korea, has share capital of KRW 482,100 million, with Samsung Electro-Mechanics holding 66% and Dongwoo Fine-Chem 34%. A supply system is scheduled by the second half of fiscal 2027, followed by gradual capacity expansion.

Key facts

Market context

Glass core substrates are rigid packaging platforms that sit between a semiconductor die and the printed circuit board, carrying fine interconnect wiring for complex chips. Compared with conventional organic laminate cores, glass offers better dimensional stability, flatness and the ability to route very fine lines, which matters as chip designers stack more dies and memory into a single package. The main demand drivers are advanced packaging for graphics processors, AI accelerators and high-performance computing used in data centers, where package size and signal integrity limits are increasingly tight. Capacity for this technology is still early and concentrated among a small group of suppliers, so new entrants can shift qualification timelines, pricing and supply security for chip makers. Materials suppliers such as glass, specialty chemical and laminate producers are watching the segment closely, since a growing supplier base typically affects how quickly the technology scales.

Source: official release on sumitomo-chem.co.jp. Summary and context written by Market Krystal.