Japan’s Rapidus will receive its first EUV scanner to produce 2nm chips in December

In order to establish serial production of 2nm chips for customers by 2027, the young Japanese company will have to master their pilot production by April 2025, and for this, in mid-December of this year it will receive its first ASML scanner for working with EUV- lithography. In the future, the company will acquire several such systems, and in total more than 200 pieces of equipment will be used at the enterprise.

Image Source: Intel

As Nikkei notes, the first ASML EUV scanner for the needs of Rapidus will arrive at the airport on the island of Hokkaido in mid-December. To speed up delivery, it will be delivered by several cargo planes in disassembled form. ASML specialists sent to Japan will then assemble and configure the system so that it will allow the pilot production of 2nm products to begin by April next year. ASML will open its service center next door, so Rapidus should not have any problems with further maintenance of such equipment.

As of October this year, the Rapidus facility was 63% completed, with approximately 4,400 workers involved in construction this month. If this project is successful, Rapidus intends to build another enterprise in Hokkaido, which will be able to start producing 1.4-nm chips by the end of the decade. There is also a third one in the future, but in this case its construction will be carried out already in the next decade.

The company’s management is currently negotiating with more than 40 potential clients who could order their chips from Rapidus production, but the company will begin to disclose the names of actual customers no earlier than next year. Notably, this week Nvidia founder Jensen Huang hinted at his interest in collaborating with Rapidus, citing the importance of diversifying his company’s supply chains amid deepening tensions between the US and China.