Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, July 25, Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus estimates that the cost of its 2nm chip will be ten times that of standard chips made by other Japanese companies.

Junyi Koike, chief executive of Rapidus, said in an interview with the Nikkei and Tokyo Economic News that Rapidus's 2nm chips are crucial for Japan because some of them will be used in high-performance computing applications critical to national security, while others will be used for innovative civilian applications such as self-driving cars and robots.

According to official plans, Rapidus's factory in Chitose, Hokkaido, plans to start trial production of 2nm chips in April 2025.

The plant is expected to begin pilot operation of water, electricity, gas and ventilation systems in September 2024 in preparation for the installation of production tools in December of the same year, and a large-scale production line is expected to be operational in early 2027.

Mr Koike said Rapidus had recruited 100 semiconductor engineers as of April 2023 and planned to double them by the end of the year. The first batch of engineers are currently being trained at Albany NanoTech Complex in IBM. The company believes that 300 to 500 engineers will be needed to enter the pilot production phase in 2025.

It is said that the infant 2nm plant will be divided into three or four stages, which the company calls "innovative integrated manufacturing" (IIM) units. The IIM-1 unit will make 2nm chips, while IIM-2 will handle more advanced chip processes than 2nm.

CTOnews.com Science Popularization: Rapidus was founded in August 2022, jointly funded by Toyota, Sony, NTT, NEC, Softbank Corp., Denso Denso, armor, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and other eight Japanese enterprises. It is estimated that Rapidus needs a budget of 5 trillion yen (currently about 254 billion yuan) from R & D to mass production.

The Government of Japan has agreed to provide the company with a two-year subsidy totaling US $2 billion. However, other Japanese companies seem reluctant to invest in Rapidus. But because the company needs a lot of money, its chief executive is considering raising more money through an initial public offering (IPO), but there has been no announcement yet.

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