Doosan Announces $725M Investment to Expand AI-Grade Copper Clad Laminate Production
South Korea's Doosan announced a 970 billion won investment over three years to expand its Copper Clad Laminate (CCL) manufacturing capacity. The plan allocates 420 billion won in South Korea for optical transceiver CCLs and 550 billion won to build a new plant in China for AI accelerator and network switch CCLs, with production expected to start in late 2028. Rapid growth in AI hardware is driving unprecedented demand for specialized, low-loss CCL materials essential for high-speed data transmission in data centers. This massive expansion highlights how key upstream suppliers are bottlenecked at full capacity and scaling up to meet global AI infrastructure needs. Doosan's domestic CCL production lines are currently operating at over 100% capacity, following an 86% year-over-year revenue increase in its electronics division in 2025. The new facilities will focus on low-loss, high-end substrates designed to maintain dielectric stability and reduce signal attenuation across dense multilayer circuit boards.
## BACKGROUND
Copper Clad Laminate (CCL) is the core substrate material of printed circuit boards (PCBs), manufactured by bonding copper foil onto an insulating layer composed of resin and reinforcing fabric like glass fiber. In AI servers and high-speed networking equipment, advanced low-loss CCL materials are critical because high-frequency signals suffer rapid attenuation and heat buildup without high-quality insulation.