Prime Minister Fumio Kishida went to Hokkaido to see the site where Rapidus is putting up a chip factory, and he left a promise behind. Tokyo, he said, will back the project with law and money.
“We will promptly submit to the Diet the bill necessary for the mass production of next-generation semiconductors,” Kishida said, according to a Nikkei report. He added that the government will provide “large-scale, calculated and focused investment support” across several fiscal years, covering both mass production and research.
What Rapidus plans to build
The startup wants to open a fab in Hokkaido that makes 2nm-class chips and offers advanced packaging by 2027. Phase one is expected to cost about 5 trillion yen, or $32 billion. A second phase, due after 2027, would move to a 1.4nm-class process.
The state has so far approved subsidies of up to 920 billion yen. Private money is far thinner: Rapidus has raised 7.3 billion yen from investors that include Toyota and Sony.
The banks want a guarantee
That gap is what the new bill is meant to close. MUFG Bank, Japan’s largest lender, is involved, but other big banks are holding back from loans unless the government stands behind them. The legislation would put state guarantees under private financing, and Tokyo hopes to present it to an extraordinary session of the Diet in the fall.
Nikkei reported that bank executives see two problems. Rapidus has no commitments from future customers, and it has no record of mass production. It also has to compete with TSMC, Intel Foundry and Samsung Foundry, which makes lending to the project a risk.
Officials still see a case for it. The economic impact of building a chip industry in Hokkaido is estimated at more than 18 trillion yen by 2036, and the plant is considered important to Japan’s economic security and its domestic chip supply.
