Japan is going all-in on advanced chips. On April 13, the government announced an additional ¥631.5B support for Rapidus, bringing total aid to ¥2.354 trillion ($15.7B). The goal: mass produce 2nm and 1.4nm chips by 2027 and reshape global semiconductor pattern.

On April 11, Rapidus opened its analysis center and RCS advanced packaging base in Hokkaido – both critical for 2nm production, set to start in H2 of FY2027.

The government is also lining up customers. It will provide up to ¥76B to Fujitsu and IBM Japan to place AI chip orders with Rapidus. Fujitsu plans to use Rapidus 1.4nm for an AI inference NPU chiplet, then integrate it with its own 144-core Armv9 Monaka CPU (made by TSMC on 2nm) for Japan’s next-gen supercomputer Fugaku NEXT.

By end of FY2027, total support for Rapidus will reach ¥2.6T. The company aims for 2nm in 2027, 1.4nm in 2029, with monthly capacity of 20,000-25,000 wafers. It has already taped out 2nm GAA wafers in July 2025.

Rapidus plans an IPO around FY2031 and may raise ¥3T with government guarantees to accelerate tech catch-up.

ICgoodFind :Japan bets ¥2.35T on Rapidus’ 2nm/1.4nm – government-backed customers and fabs. A new challenger to TSMC emerges.