The first, essential step in achieving mass production is collaboration with overseas partners. According to Shindo, “We need to cooperate with various companies around the world, since particular technologies and processes are being advanced by different leading-edge firms.” In 2022, Rapidus formed a partnership with IBM, which has successfully developed the 2-nm chip technology. Around 100 engineers from Rapidus have already been dispatched to IBM’s R&D center—the Albany NanoTech Complex in the state of New York—to jointly develop technology for the chip’s mass production. It also plans to open a business base in Silicon Valley, home to major IT and AI development companies. Additionally, Rapidus has formed a cooperative relationship with Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec), an international organization in Belgium for semiconductor research, to receive technical support in such matters as the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems.