November 21, 2024 – According to a report by Nikkei, the Japanese government intends to invest 200 billion yen in semiconductor startup Rapidus over the next year, starting from April 2025. This investment aims to support the company’s ambition to commence commercial production by 2027.
Rapidus, a joint venture founded in 2022 by eight prominent Japanese corporations including Sony, Toyota, NTT, Mitsubishi, NEC, Kioxia, and SoftBank, strives to localize the design and manufacturing of advanced semiconductor processes. In late 2022, Rapidus signed a technology licensing agreement with IBM and broke ground on a new wafer fab in Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan.
The company has set its sights on manufacturing cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips in Japan by 2025, with plans to mass-produce these high-end chips from 2027 onwards. Furthermore, as reported by TrendForce, an EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography machine ordered by Rapidus from ASML is expected to arrive in Japan in mid-December. This marks the first deployment of EUV technology in Japan, representing a significant step forward for the country’s semiconductor industry in its quest to become a major player.
Construction of Rapidus’s new wafer fab commenced in September 2023, and the project is currently 63% complete, progressing as scheduled.
