Japanese semiconductor company founded in 2022 by Koike Atsuyoshi, a 73-year-old semiconductor engineer and motorcycle aficionado. Its massive fab opened in Chitose, a small city on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island.
In December 2024 Rapidus became the first Japanese entity to acquire an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) system from ASML, the Dutch company that makes the unique devices, and had it up and running within months. In mid-July 2025 Rapidus announced the successful pilot production of two-nanometre (2nm) transistors, the thinnest, most advanced chips yet. Born of a partnership with IBM, which developed a new method for making next-generation transistors, Rapidus hopes to leapfrog across a generation of semiconductor engineering and catch up with global pace-setters.
Rapidus has attracted investment from a consortium of eight blue-chip Japanese firms, including Sony, Toyota and SoftBank. The government has bankrolled much of the initial cost, to the tune of Y1.72trn ($12bn) through early 2025. It is the highest-risk and highest-reward bet of Japan's semiconductor strategy.
Rapidus is positioning itself as a boutique option, making smaller lots of specialised chips rather than large batches. "We have no intention of directly competing with TSMC--the markets are different," says Koike. Samsung and TSMC are advancing towards 2nm chips of their own.
Cultivating enough talented cadres is a major challenge. The average age of its recruits was initially over 50, relying largely on older specialists who came of age during Japan's first chip boom. Roughly 150 top engineers were sent to train at IBM's research facility in New York. Rapidus aims to begin mass production in 2027.
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