Japan backs Rapidus with ¥631.5bn

Japan approved another ¥631.5 billion, about $4 billion, for Rapidus on April 11, deepening its bet on a homegrown advanced-chip maker. (reuters.com) Japan’s industry ministry said the money will speed research and development at Rapidus, and Reuters reported the latest award lifts total government research support to ¥2.354 trillion. Bloomberg reported total state fees and investments are set to reach about ¥2.6 trillion by March 2027. (reuters.com) (bloomberg.com) Rapidus is trying to mass-produce 2-nanometer logic chips in fiscal 2027 at its IIM-1 site in Chitose, Hokkaido, and the company said on April 11 that Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization approved its fiscal 2026 plan and budget for that work. Rapidus also said the plan covers chiplet and packaging technology, the extra layers that connect smaller chip blocks into one processor. (rapidus.inc) That target puts Rapidus in the race for the kind of leading-edge chips used in artificial intelligence systems, where speed and power efficiency matter as much as raw computing muscle. Japan has been rebuilding domestic chip capacity after losing the manufacturing lead it held in the 1980s, when Japanese companies accounted for roughly half the global semiconductor market. (rapidus.inc) (reuters.com) Tokyo is not backing Rapidus alone. Reuters said NEDO also decided to support semiconductor design projects by Fujitsu and IBM Japan, and Bloomberg reported the new subsidy is meant in part to fund Rapidus’ work for Fujitsu as Tokyo tries to line up customers before mass production starts. (reuters.com) (bloomberg.com) Rapidus was created in August 2022 with backing from eight Japanese companies: Toyota, Sony, SoftBank, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, NEC, Denso, Kioxia and MUFG Bank. The company has said it is building a research-and-manufacturing base in Hokkaido for next-generation logic semiconductors. (rapidus.inc) (datacenterdynamics.com) Its technology plan depends on foreign partners as well as domestic money. Rapidus joined imec’s core partner program in 2023 for 2-nanometer research, and IBM said in June 2024 that it expanded its partnership with Rapidus on chiplet packaging for 2-nanometer semiconductors. (imec-int.com) (newsroom.ibm.com) The scale of the public support shows how expensive this push has become. Bloomberg reported Rapidus still aims to raise about ¥3 trillion from private investors and is targeting an initial public offering around fiscal 2031, even with state backing running into the trillions of yen. (bloomberg.com) For now, Japan is paying to keep Rapidus on a 2027 timetable and to prove it can turn a state-backed startup into a working supplier of leading-edge chips. (rapidus.inc) (reuters.com)