The young Japanese company Rapidus hopes to master the production of 2-nm products on the territory of the country by 2027 for third-party customers, relying on the technological support of IBM. The commercial sector is in no hurry to support a company with an empty track record, so the Japanese government has to allocate more and more funds for the development of Rapidus.
Image source: Rapidus
According to Bloomberg, the Japanese Ministry of Economy is preparing another aid package for Rapidus totaling $5.4 billion, of which approximately 84% will be used to develop silicon wafer processing, and the remaining funds will be used to form chip testing and packaging lines. If this part of the subsidies is allocated, then in total the Japanese authorities will transfer about $11.6 billion for the needs of Rapidus.
Initially, the burden of supporting the country’s leading contract chipmaker would fall on the business in the future, but Japanese financial institutions considered investing in a young company that had never produced chips too risky. Rapidus’ existing shareholders, who are its founders, have also not shown adequate investment activity. However, the company intends to prove its viability by launching a pilot line for 2-nanometer chips next month, so success at this stage may allow Rapidus to count on new investments.