Japan Backs Rapidus

Japan approved another ¥631.5 billion for Rapidus on April 11, adding fresh state money to its bid to make advanced chips in Hokkaido by 2027. (reuters.com) Japan’s industry ministry said the new funding will speed research and development at Rapidus, a chipmaker set up in August 2022. Reuters reported the latest package lifts Rapidus’s total research and development assistance to ¥2.354 trillion, or about $3.96 billion for this round alone at the quoted exchange rate. (reuters.com, rapidus.inc) Rapidus is building its main production base, called Innovative Integration for Manufacturing 1, in Chitose, Hokkaido. The company said on April 11 that it also opened an Analysis Center next to that foundry and a separate Rapidus Chiplet Solutions operation to support mass production of cutting-edge semiconductors in 2027. (rapidus.inc) The government is backing a foundry, which is a factory that manufactures chips designed by other companies. Japan’s ministry said the goal is to increase domestic production of advanced semiconductors and strengthen supply chains, while Rapidus is targeting 2-nanometer logic chips for fiscal 2027. (reuters.com, rapidus.inc) The “2-nanometer” label refers to a new generation of chipmaking that packs more computing parts into a smaller area, improving speed and power efficiency for workloads such as artificial intelligence. Rapidus has tied its manufacturing push to IBM’s process technology and expanded that partnership in June 2024 to cover chiplet packaging, which links smaller chip blocks into a larger system. (ibm.com, rapidus.inc) Tokyo is not only funding the factory side. Reuters said the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, a government-backed agency under the ministry, also approved support for semiconductor design-related projects at Fujitsu and IBM Japan, part of an effort to line up future work for Rapidus. (reuters.com) Rapidus started with backing from eight Japanese companies: Denso, Kioxia, MUFG Bank, NEC, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota. Its corporate profile says capital, including legal capital surplus, stood at ¥274.95 billion as of February 27, 2026, and it had 1,024 employees as of December 1, 2025. (rapidus.inc) The timetable is tight. Rapidus said last year that its pilot line would start up in April 2025, and Jiji Press reported this week that the new subsidy money will be used mainly to refine prototypes before the company tries to move into full production in fiscal 2027. (rapidus.inc, japannews.yomiuri.co.jp) Japan once dominated semiconductors in the 1980s, and Rapidus is now the centerpiece of its attempt to rebuild a domestic advanced-chip base. The new subsidy keeps that plan moving, but it also raises the size of the public bet on whether Rapidus can turn prototypes into paying production on schedule. (reuters.com, japannews.yomiuri.co.jp)