International Business Machines Corp. is prioritizing helping Japan's chipmaking startup
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 3nm node.
"When it comes to 2nm 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's 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."
Rapidus is a quasi-public project that got its start last year as a venture to build out Japan's local chipmaking capacity at a time of 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. within a handful of years. The duo have 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 IMEC.
Rapidus engineers have been
dispatched to IBM's Albany NanoTech Complex to design 2nm mass production lines while its factory is being built in Hokkaido, accelerating the development process. The Japanese firm expects to invest ¥5 trillion ($35 billion) in its 2nm 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.