Rapidus
 | |
| Rapidus | |
| Founded | August 10, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan |
| Headquarters | Japan |
Key people | Atsuyoshi Koike (President) |
| Website | www |
Rapidus Corporation is a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Rapidus was established in August 2022 with the support of eight major Japanese companies: Denso, Kioxia, MUFG Bank, NEC, NTT, SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota; IBM is also a partner. The goal of Rapidus is to increase advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity with a 2 nm process.[1]
Overview
The semiconductor industry in Japan was highly competitive in the 1980s, with a global share reaching 50%.[2] However, the Japan-US semiconductor agreement concluded to resolve the Japan-US trade friction and the rise of South Korea and Taiwan gradually reduced competitiveness. In 1999, Elpida Memory was established by integrating the businesses of Hitachi, Ltd. and NEC for DRAM, one of the semiconductors for memory, and later took over the business of Mitsubishi Electric, and at one point acquired the world's third largest market share in this field. However, management deteriorated due to the Lehman shock in 2009 and the subsequent yen appreciation recession, and although support was provided with government funds, it went bankrupt in 2012.[3] Due to international competition from companies including TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and Intel, the share of Japanese companies in the semiconductor industry as a whole has fallen to 10% as of 2019.[4]
The Second Kishida Cabinet's basic policy announced on June 7, 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. In addition, in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's policy speech at the 210th session of the Diet on October 3, he spoke about 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 (METI) has decided to establish the Center for Advanced Semiconductor Technology (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.
On 10 August 2022, Rapidus was established by eight Japanese companies with total investment of 7.3 billion yen. Rapidus was established for domestic production of advanced semiconductors. However, it is said that the number of invested companies is expected to increase in the future.[5] The president is Atsuyoshi Koike who formerly led Western Digital's Japanese subsidiary. In the same year, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 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, and were adopted in November. As a result, it was decided to receive 70 billion yen of support from the government.[6]
References
- ^ Humphries, Matthew (2022-12-13). "Japan to Manufacture 2nm Chips With a Little Help From IBM". PCMAG.
- ^ "半導体新会社ラピダス発足 日本勢「空白の10年」挽回へ". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). 2022-11-11.
- ^ 日本放送協会. "トヨタ・ソニーなど国内8社出資 先端半導体の国産化へ新会社 | NHK". NHKニュース.
- ^ "かつての「半導体大国」からの凋落。日本に半導体不足を解消する力はあるか | 集英社オンライン | 毎日が、あたらしい". shueisha.online (in Japanese).
- ^ "日本の次世代半導体開発・製造へ向けて2つの新組織が始動へ". TECH+（テックプラス） (in Japanese). 2022-11-10.
- ^ "【独自】「次世代半導体」の新会社を設立 NTT・キオクシアなどが出資へ｜テレ東BIZ（テレビ東京ビジネスオンデマンド）". テレビ東京 (in Japanese).