Japanese chipmaker Rapidus has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new plant in Chitose City, Hokkaido. The ceremony was attended by Rapidus President Koike Atsuyoshi, Industry Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi, and Hokkaido Governor Suzuki Naomichi.
The company aims to manufacture chips that are 2 nanometers or smaller. That is a size no other maker in the world has commercialized.
A prototype production line is scheduled to be completed by 2025. Full-scale production should start around 2027. The government has committed 330 billion yen, or about 2.3 billion dollars, to the project.
Rapidus was jointly established last year by eight Japanese firms, including Toyota Motor, Sony Group, and telecom giant NTT.
It aims to produce cutting-edge semiconductors crucial for high-speed processing of big data in the fields of automated driving and artificial intelligence.