HUE Legacy Ventures

Inside AT&S and the race to make the critical layer beneath AI chips

Managing Asia’s Christine Tan goes inside AT&S’s Malaysia plant, where CEO Michael Mertin explains why IC substrates — the high-tech base layers beneath AI chips — are becoming more important as AI demand grows and manufacturers race to add capacity.

Written by
Christine Tan
Published by
CNBC
Published
Length
153 words · 1 min
Inside AT&S and the race to make the critical layer beneath AI chips
watch nowManaging AsiaInside the race to make the critical layer beneath AI chipsManaging Asia’s Christine Tan goes inside AT&S’s Malaysia plant, where CEO Michael Mertin explains why IC substrates — the high-tech base layers beneath AI chips — are becoming more important as AI demand grows and manufacturers race to add capacity.15:00Sat, Sep 26 20266:00 PM EDT
Christine Tan

Austrian technology company AT&S makes a little-known but increasingly important part of AI chips: IC substrates. These high-tech base layers sit beneath processors and memory, helping carry power and data between components inside advanced chip packages.

Managing Asia goes inside AT&S's manufacturing complex in Kulim, Malaysia, where the company is expanding capacity as demand grows.

CEO Michael Mertin discusses the technology race, AT&S's expansion plans, competition in the substrate market and how geopolitics is reshaping the semiconductor supply chain.

Watch the interview on "Managing Asia with Christine Tan" in the video above.

Where this came from

This story was reported by Christine Tan and first published by CNBC on 26 September 2026. HUE Legacy Ventures did not write it.

Carried in full with attribution and a link to the original. Rights remain with the publisher, who may request removal at any time.

Read it at cnbc.com →