The chairman of Rapidus, a Japanese government-backed semiconductor consortium set up to overtake the world’s largest chip makers, estimates that a 2nm chip will cost 10 times more than standard chips made by other Japanese companies today. But if the company expects to start producing 2nm in 2027, some companies are willing to pay such a price.
Rapidus’ 2nm chips are crucial to Japan, some of which will be used for high-performance computing applications critical to national security, and others for innovative civilian applications such as self-driving cars and robotics, Rapidus chief executive Atsuyoshi Koike told Nikkei and Tokyo Keizai Shimbun. Digi Times).
2nm chips are obviously significantly more expensive than today’s chips made at advanced nodes, but 10x is a huge leap when compared to today’s Japanese “mainstream” chips. Virtually all Japanese chip designers started outsourcing production at the sub-40nm node to Taiwanese foundries a few years ago, so 45nm is probably the most advanced process technology currently in use and made in Japan. Needless to say, manufacturing chips at the 2nm node will be significantly more expensive when compared to 45nm manufacturing technology.
Pilot production of 2nm chips at Rapidus’ factory in Chitose, Hokkaido is scheduled for April 2025. The production facility is scheduled to begin trial operation in September 2024, including water, electricity, gas and ventilation systems, in preparation for tool installation in December of the same year. The production line he plans to go live in early 2027.
As for the qualified workforce to work at the state-of-the-art chip production facility, Koike assured that Rapidus is not facing any major recruitment difficulties. The company has been successful in attracting Japanese semiconductor professionals who have returned from abroad or returned to the semiconductor industry after changing jobs.
Rapidus employs 100 semiconductor engineers as of April 2023 and plans to double that number by the end of the year. The first group of engineers is currently undergoing training at IBM’s Albany Nanotech Complex. The company believes he will need 300-500 engineers for pilot production already in 2025.
The Chitose plant will be able to handle three to four phases of what the company calls the “Innovative Integration for Manufacturing (IIM)” unit. The IIM-1 unit manufactures 2nm chips, while IIM-2 is responsible for processing sub-2nm chips.
Backed by the Japanese government as well as Denso, Kioxia, MUFG Bank, NEC, NTT, SoftBank, Sony and Toyota, Rapidus is estimated to need a ¥5 trillion ($35 billion) budget to move from R&D to mass production. The Japanese government has agreed to financially support the company with subsidies totaling $2 billion over two years. Other Japanese companies, however, seem hesitant to invest in Rapidus. For example, Hitachi has been reluctant to invest in Rapidus, but has instead chosen to provide manufacturing and metrology equipment and related expertise to help strengthen Rapidus’ manufacturing technology. The company clearly needs a lot of money, so the CEO is looking to raise additional money through an initial public offering (IPO), but there’s nothing to announce so far.
