The chip venture Rapidus, which brings together some of the world’s biggest companies, is the “last opportunity” to put Japan’s once-dominant semiconductor sector back on the global map, Rapidus chairman Tetsuro Higashi said.
While the company has the financial firepower of the government behind it, he was under no illusions about the challenges ahead, Higashi said.
“The entire world is becoming digitized. It is becoming crucially important for Japan to build a very strong digital technology industry,” said Higashi, an industry veteran and the former president of Tokyo Electron, a major producer of tools to make chips.
Photo: Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP
“Japan is more than a decade behind others. It will require enormous money just to catch up,” he said.
Its government has promised up to ￥4 trillion (US$25.7 billion) in subsidies to help triple sales of domestically produced chips to more than ￥15 trillion by 2030.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), maker of half the world’s chips, has already benefited, opening a new fabrication plant in Japan in February and planning a second.
Japan’s government has committed ￥920 billion to Rapidus, a joint venture involving Sony, Toyota, IBM and others, which is now building its fab in Hokkaido.
The aim is to mass produce logic chips in Japan from 2027 using 2-nanometer technology, the next frontier in chips containing even more miniscule transistors.
TSMC and others are racing to reach full production for their 2-nanometer chips, which would be vital in powering the mooted revolution in artificial intelligence (AI).
Higashi is confident Rapidus can do it and makes no bones about what is at stake.
“This could be the last opportunity for Japan” to relaunch a competitive semiconductor industry, Higashi said.
By around 2027, global demand for advanced, energy-efficient semiconductors is expected to explode, as AI and digital technology further enter people’s daily lives, he said.
US tech firms like Google and OpenAI are also investing heavily in Japan in hopes that the country, once a world-beating technology pioneer, can regain its edge with AI.
Nvidia, whose chips dominate in AI, would do its best to supply Japan with its AI processors, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said.
However, Higashi said it is clear Japan must rely less on foreign supply.
“We are becoming a digital society. All kinds of industries in Japan will rely immensely on semiconductors,” Higashi said.
Japan was a big player in the semiconductor industry in the 1980s through early 1990s, commanding half of the global market with the likes of NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp leading the way.
Now, it only accounts for about 10 percent of the market. However, it remains a leader in chipmaking equipment and materials.
Japan’s aims also have a geopolitical angle. Similar to the US and others, Tokyo seeks to reduce its reliance on TSMC’s fabs in Taiwan, given fears of a Chinese invasion.
Meanwhile, the US wants to restrict the supply of next-generation chips to China and slow down Beijing’s AI drive.
While avoiding directly discussing geopolitics, Higashi said he expected firms in friendly nations, such as Japan and the US, to share tasks to maintain international supply chains.
“In Japan, like the US, there are many major production equipment firms and materials companies. They are dealing with customers that require very advanced products,” he said. “Those production-equipment makers and materials firms are providing their support to us.”
Its success should inspire young engineers to further grow Japan’s chip sector, Higashi added.
“We must create new semiconductors and inspire people that we can create a new world,” he said.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
RSS