Japan is preparing as much as ¥802.5 billion (US$5.4 billion) in additional aid for chip start-up Rapidus Corp, a move that reflects Tokyo’s growing resolve to secure semiconductors during a time of heightened US-China tensions.
That brings the total amount of public money earmarked for the country’s effort to build an advanced chip contractor to a maximum ¥1.72 trillion, plus another ¥100 billion that has been proposed. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is also pushing for debt guarantees to encourage more private sector investment into the fledgling company.
Most of the world’s advanced logic chips used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), sparking concerns about global reliance on Taiwan. Those fears, coupled with US President Donald Trump’s “America first” campaign, are also fueling a sense of urgency in Japan that’s helping Rapidus.
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For the fiscal year starting this month, the Japanese ministry approved as much as ¥675.5 billion of additional support for front-end processing, which fabricates silicon wafers before they are cut into individual chip, and another ¥127 billion for back-end processing, which includes chip packaging and testing. That public aid would likely decline beginning in the following business year, ministry officials said.
“We are hopeful that private-sector support will emerge in the coming fiscal year,” Hisashi Kanazashi, director of the ministry’s IT industry division, told reporters yesterday. Such fundraising talks with possible corporate and financial partners are proceeding as planned, he added.
Rapidus is on track to begin operating a pilot line this month and would begin processing the first batch of wafers before summer, he added.
The start-up, backed by Toyota Motor Corp, Sony Group Corp and Softbank Corp, aims to begin mass production of next-generation chips in 2027, a highly ambitious target.
Japan has pledged about ¥5.4 trillion in an attempt to claw back some of its former leadership in chip technology. The country still has a leading market share in silicon wafers, as well as in certain chip materials and gear, but has ceded supremacy in the more lucrative parts of semiconductor design and production to chipmakers in the US and Taiwan.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has promised fresh public support for the country’s chip and AI sectors, and a bill to enable loan guarantees and an issuance of government bonds tied to the energy special account is expected to be submitted to the Japanese Diet during the current session set to end in June.
The Diet is slated to approve about ¥333 billion in the fiscal year starting this month geared at boosting the country’s chip and AI sectors.
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar