International Business Machines Corp (IBM) is prioritizing helping Japan’s chipmaking start-up Rapidus Corp, with a senior executive describing the budding foundry business as vital to securing long-term global supply.
Rapidus, a venture backed by some of Japan’s biggest electronics firms, is turning IBM’s 2-nanometer chip design into production-ready silicon and aims to fabricate such chips at scale in the latter half of this decade. The most advanced semiconductors today are built at the larger 3-nanometer node.
“When it comes to 2-nanometer technology, we are focusing our efforts on Rapidus and investing a great deal of resources to this project, even sacrificing some capacity that we could have used in other research,” IBM Japan chief technology officer Norishige Morimoto told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We want Rapidus to succeed. We want it to contribute to a stable supply of the chips we and the world need.”
Photo: Reuters
Rapidus is a quasi-public project that started last year as a venture to build out Japan’s local chipmaking capacity amid rising geopolitical tensions and protectionism.
It has the government’s support and is led by veterans of the semiconductor supply chain, including Tetsuro Higashi, the former chairman of Tokyo Electron Ltd, and Atsuyoshi Koike, the former Japan president of Western Digital Corp.
The daunting task ahead of them is to create a world-class chipmaking foundry — fabricating silicon for outside customers — to catch up with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) within a handful of years.
Rapidus has drawn investment from companies including Toyota Motor Corp, Sony Group Corp and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. Rapidus is working with IBM and Belgium-based microelectronics research hub Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre.
The company’s engineers have been dispatched to IBM’s NanoTech Complex in Albany, New York, to design 2-nanometer mass production lines while its factory is being built in Hokkaido, accelerating the development process.
The Japanese firm expects to invest ￥5 trillion (US$34.52 billion) in its 2-nanometer project, roughly matching the annual outlay of TSMC and fellow leading chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co.
IBM would be open to helping Rapidus lock up further deals with major chip firms.
“We won’t rule out any options as long as they match with our business needs,” Morimoto said.
IBM also provides chipmaking technology to Samsung’s foundry division.
“Rapidus and Samsung are on the same platform as they both use IBM technology, and it’s very possible the two can strike a win-win partnership as their business models are quite different,” Omdia analyst Akira Minamikawa said.
Semiconductor demand is set to keep growing as a post-COVID-19 recovery takes hold and an artificial intelligence boom drives the need for more memory and computing power.
Global revenue is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2030, doubling in a decade, said Inna Skvortsova, a market analyst at industry body SEMI.
Currently, only Samsung and TSMC can produce the most advanced chips and there is widespread interest — from Washington to Beijing and Brussels — in adding more redundancy to the sources of supply.
Rapidus would ideally offer a third option, and, moreover, should be welcomed by the industry leaders who have struggled to meet demand, Morimoto said.
“We know from our own experience that providing the newest generation of chips is not something that one company can handle alone,” he said. “Both TSMC and Samsung will welcome Rapidus joining the club of cutting-edge chip manufacturers because, as things stand now, they are making customers wait. Rapidus taking some orders from them wouldn’t be a problem.”
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) has said he does not see Rapidus as a competitor, as the Japanese chipmaker would focus on fostering engineering talent.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS