Tetsuro Higashi, chairman of Japan's state-owned chip company Rapidus, told Reuters on Thursday that the company will need about 7 trillion yen ($54 billion), mostly taxpayer money, to start large-scale production around 2027. Produces advanced logic chips.
The plan may be Japan's last best chance to revive its aging semiconductor industry as it and the United States put aside their old industrial rivalry to take on China amid rising geopolitical tensions.
"In the past, the United States hindered the development of Japan's chip industry. Now we have the support of the United States," Tetsuro Higashi said in an interview.
Japan and the United States worry that friction with China could lead to semiconductor shortages, threatening economic growth.
After Japan and the United States reached a semiconductor technology cooperation agreement, Rapidus announced in December that it would cooperate with IBM to develop and produce two-nanometer chips.
A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and the smaller the number, the more advanced the chip. The most advanced semiconductor factory in Japan is the 40-nanometer factory owned by Renesas Electronics.
Rapidus will announce the location of its first factory in March, Higashi said.
The former boss of chip machinery maker Tokyo Electron declined to disclose the location but said it would not be close to the Kyushu island site recently chosen by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for its first Japanese factory.
To pay for the plant and purchase production equipment, Rapidus needs continued investment from the Japanese government, which announced in December it would provide 70 billion yen ($544 million) in initial funding.
Higashi said the eight companies that have small stakes in Rapidus, including Toyota Motor Corp and Sony Group Corp, are unlikely to come up with any funds soon.
"They are future customers. For them, when they can evaluate our technology and production plans, the investment decision will be made."
Rapidus to trial production of 2nm in 2025
According to foreign media reports, Koike Atsuki, president of Japanese semiconductor giant Rapidus, said in an interview with Nikkei Business News that Rapidus will build a 2-nanometer semiconductor prototype production line by the first half of 2025. The company will catch up with world-class semiconductor manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), which will mass-produce 2-nanometer products in 2025, and strive to regain the leading position in the Japanese semiconductor industry.
Regarding the conditions for candidate locations for factory expansion in Japan, Koike Atsuki said that in addition to stable infrastructure such as water and electricity, it also needs to be a place where it is easy to recruit domestic and foreign talents. The screening process is currently being advanced and will be formally determined before March.
Rapidus is a new company established in 2022 by eight companies including Sony, Toyota, Kioxia, NTT, SoftBank, NEC, Denso, and Mitsubishi UFJ. It is dedicated to the research, development, design, manufacturing and sales of advanced logic semiconductors. Known as the dream team of the Japanese semiconductor industry.
Koike Atsuki said that in order to mass-produce the most advanced 2nm semiconductors in the late 2020s, the prototype line must be operational in the first half of 2025 at the latest. He said that acquiring 2-nanometer technology requires 2 trillion yen (approximately NT$480 billion), and establishing large-scale production lines requires 3 trillion yen (NT$700 billion).
IT House pointed out that Rapidus signed a technology licensing agreement with IBM in the United States at the end of 2022. IBM has successfully trial-produced 2-nanometer products in 2021. Rapidus will dispatch employees to the United States in the near future to master the required basic technologies.
Koike Atsushi said that the more sophisticated and complex the circuits of cutting-edge semiconductors, the longer it takes from design to mass production. The system and mass production process for providing design support to user companies will be adjusted to shorten the time required. The goal is to differentiate from TSMC and South Korea's Samsung Electronics, which are far ahead in terms of volume, through a business that can provide cutting-edge products in a short period of time.
According to Korean media BusinessKorea, Japan seems to follow a dual-track strategy in cultivating the non-memory semiconductor industry. In the field of system semiconductors, Japan will cooperate with TSMC at the government level, while Japanese companies will focus on developing their own advanced technologies.
BusinissKorea also stated that Japan is not the only country that provides substantial support for semiconductors in terms of national security. The United States, China, Taiwan and Europe have also decided to invest large sums of money in cultivating their own semiconductor industries in the next few years. Currently, TSMC is producing 3-nanometer products and has also announced plans to mass-produce 2-nanometer products in 2025.
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