Japanese Industry Minister Ken Saito on Sunday expressed the government’s willingness to consider providing additional support to Rapidus, which aims to mass produce the next generation of semiconductors.
On that day, Saito visited the construction site for the Japanese chipmaker’s factory in the city of Chitose in Hokkaido Prefecture.
“I have confirmed that construction work is progressing steadily,” he told a news conference. “The government will consider additional assistance (to Rapidus) depending on the situation.”
Saito also said the government plans to work with relevant local communities to carefully address issues related to the plant’s launch, such as infrastructure development.
For the visit to the factory site, the minister was accompanied by Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike, Hokkaido Vice Governor Tsuyoshi Mitsuhashi and Chitose Mayor Ryuichi Yokota.
Amid a lack of land for factories, it is important to establish a new industrial park to attract companies from related industries, Yokota said, asking Saito for the state’s cooperation.
Rapidus aims to mass produce semiconductor chips with a circuit line width of 2 nanometers. Such chips are used for artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.
The Rapidus factory is now being built at the Chitose Bibi World Industrial Park.
The company plans to start operating a prototype production line at the factory in April 2025 and launch mass production in 2027.
The government has decided to grant the company up to ¥920 billion in aid.
Rapidus was founded in October 2022 by eight Japanese companies – Kioxia, Sony Group, SoftBank, Denso, Toyota Motor, NEC, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and MUFG Bank – with a total investment of ¥7.3 billion.
