Japan's Rapidus Planning to Build 2nm Prototype Line by 2025

In an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Jan. 25, Atsuyoshi Koike, president of Rapidus Corp., said his company would build a 2nm semiconductor prototype line by the first half of 2025.

Rapidus is a new company established by eight companies, including Sony, Toyota, Kioxia, NTT, Softbank, NEC, Denso, and Mitsubishi UFJ, in 2022 to research, develop, design, manufacture, and sell advanced logic semiconductors. It is called the "Dream Team" of the Japanese semiconductor industry.

To mass-produce 2nm state-of-the-art semiconductors in the late 2020s, Koike said, it is necessary to operate the prototype line in the first half of 2025 at the latest. He said it takes two trillion yen to acquire the technology for a 2nm process and another three trillion yen to set up a mass production line.

Japan appears to be following a two-track strategy in nurturing the non-memory semiconductor industry. In the field of system semiconductors, Japan will pursue cooperation with Taiwan's TSMC at the governmental level, and Japanese companies focus on developing advanced technology on their part.

Japan is not the only country that provides massive support for semiconductors in connection with national security. The United States, China, Taiwan, and Europe also decided to invest 50 trillion won to 200 trillion won over the next few years to foster their semiconductor industries.

On the other hand, the Korean government had no choice but to lower the level of support for chipmakers under the Special Semiconductor Act (K-Chips Act) due to the main opposition party, which refused to cooperate with the government.