Japan’s Pursuit of a Game-Changing Technology and Ecosystem for Semiconductors
With the goal of revitalizing Japan’s semiconductor industry, Rapidus aims to develop a system for mass producing next-generation 2-nm chips.
With the goal of revitalizing Japan’s semiconductor industry, Rapidus was founded to establish design and manufacturing bases for next-generation chips. This article explores the company’s quest to develop a 2-nanometer (nm) chip mass production system that boasts high speed and can meet various requests, as well as the strategies being taken to achieve this.
In December 2022, IBM, which developed the 2-nm chip, and Rapidus, which will carry out its mass production, announced that they would be forming a partnership for joint development.
Next-generation semiconductors are a core material for realizing digitalization and decarbonization, and are also indispensable to generative AI and autonomous driving. Securing a supply chain for such chips is a pressing global issue. Against that backdrop, Rapidus Corporation was founded in 2022 to work on a project at the heart of Japan’s semiconductor strategy. Rapidus aims to develop a system for mass producing leading-edge 2-nanometer (nm) chips, which has yet to be realized anywhere. Major Japanese companies—including Toyota Motor Corporation and the Sony Group—have invested a total of 7.3 billion yen in this massive public-private partnership, while the Japanese government has announced support totaling 330 billion yen so far. A large-scale R&D facility and production plant is currently under construction in Chitose City, Hokkaido Prefecture. The company plans to set up a pilot production line in April of 2025, and to begin mass production in 2027.
Japan occupied more than half of the global semiconductor market in the 1980s, but other countries have been leading in this industry ever since. While plants in other parts of the world are currently mass producing 3-nm chips, the most advanced generation produced in Japan now is the 40-nm chip. “The architecture of the 2-nm chip is totally different from that of the 3-nm one, making mass production of the former a blank-slate challenge for all players. This critical juncture is a prime opportunity to break into the market,” said SHINDO Yukiko, senior human resources manager at Rapidus.
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