Rapidus Corporation is a

semiconductor manufacturer The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconduct ...

headquartered in

Chiyoda, Tokyo is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile< ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Rapidus was established in August 2022 with the support of eight major Japanese companies: Denso,

Kioxia Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was spun off from the Toshiba conglomerate as in June ...

MUFG Bank is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006, following the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd. MUFG is one of the three so-called Japanese "megabanks" (along with SMBC and Mizuho). As such, ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

, NTT,

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. The goal of Rapidus is to increase advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity with a 2 nm process by 2027.

Overview

Background history

The semiconductor industry in Japan was highly competitive in the 1980s, with a global share reaching 50%. However, the 1986 Japan-US semiconductor agreement concluded to resolve trade friction and the rise of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

gradually reduced competitiveness. In 1999,

Elpida Memory Micron Memory Japan, K.K. is a Japanese subsidiary of Micron Technology. It was formerly known as established in 1999 that developed, designed, manufactured and sold dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) products. It was also a semiconductor fou ...

was established by integrating the businesses of

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

and

for

DRAM Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...

, one of the semiconductors for memory, and later took over the business of

Mitsubishi Electric , established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...

, and at one point acquired the world's third largest market share in this field. However, management deteriorated due to the

Lehman shock The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis. After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal ...

in 2009 and the subsequent yen appreciation recession, and although support was provided with government funds, it went bankrupt in 2012. Due to international competition from companies including

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semicon ...

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

, and

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

, the share of Japanese companies in the semiconductor industry as a whole has fallen to 10% as of 2019. In May 2022, United States President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister

Fumio Kishida is a Japanese politician serving as Prime Minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. A member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and ...

met in Tokyo and discussed increased collaboration on important technologies, including semiconductors,

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...

electric batteries An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negat ...

, critical minerals, and supply chains. The

Second Kishida Cabinet The Second Kishida Cabinet is the 101st Cabinet of Japan and was formed by Fumio Kishida, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Japan. The government is a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito a ...

's basic policy announced on 7 June 2022 included consideration of support for private companies developing next-generation advanced technologies and the establishment of a design and manufacturing infrastructure for next-generation semiconductors in the latter half of the 2020s. On 29 July 2022, high-level talks were held between the United States and Japan by U.S. Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and ...

, U.S. Commerce Secretary

Gina Raimondo Gina Marie Raimondo (; born May 17, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and venture capitalist who has served as the 40th United States Secretary of Commerce since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 75th go ...

, Japanese Foreign Minister

Yoshimasa Hayashi is a Japanese politician who currently serves as Minister for Foreign Affairs since November 2021. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he also serves in the House of Representatives for the Yamaguchi 3rd district since 2021. Early life ...

and Japanese Trade Minister Koichi Hagiuda to discuss collaboration for semiconductors development. In addition, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's policy speech at the 210th session of the Diet on 3 October 2022 included digital transformation (DX) by encouraging public and private investment, and announced that it would promote the technological development and mass production of next-generation semiconductors through Japan-U.S. collaboration. The

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The or METI, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic activities, ...

(METI) has decided to establish the Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC) as an organization to conduct next-generation semiconductor research in anticipation of joint research between the two countries based on the basic principles of semiconductor cooperation between Japan and the United States agreed on in May. In addition to the LSTC, it was decided to improve manufacturing capacity in Japan.

Company history

On 10 August 2022, Rapidus was established by eight Japanese companies with total investment of 7.3 billion yen for domestic production of advanced semiconductors; with further investments expected. Rapidus is led by Tetsuro Higashi (who formerly led

Tokyo Electron , or TEL, is a Japanese electronics and semiconductor company headquartered in Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded as Tokyo Electron Laboratories, Inc. in 1963. TEL is best known as a supplier of equipment to fabricate ...

) and Atsuyoshi Koike (who formerly led

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

's Japanese subsidiary). In the same year, METI and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) publicly solicited applications for advanced semiconductor development consignment projects related to strengthening the foundation of post-5G communication systems, which resulted in 70 billion yen of government subsidies for Rapidus. On 6 December 2022,

IMEC Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) is an international research & development organization, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies, with headquarters in Belgium. Luc Van den hove has served as President and ...

announced it had signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Rapidus, where both companies will set up a long-term and sustainable collaboration on advanced semiconductor technologies, while Rapidus would plan to mass-produce chips in 2-nanometer technology in Japan in the latter half of 2020s. On 13 December 2022, IBM and Rapidus announced the development of 2 nanometer node technology, with production of the technology previously announced by IBM in 2021 to be done by Rapidus at its fab in Japan. The 2 nm semiconductor chips which Rapidus is aiming to produce are expected to have up to 45% better performance and use 75% less energy compared to 7 nm chips on the market in 2022.

References

{{Reflist Companies of Japan Foundry semiconductor companies Semiconductor companies