Japanese Chipmaker Rapidus to Build Fully Automated 2-nm Fab, Promises 66% Faster Delivery Than TSMC and Samsung

Rapidus Corporation, a developer that is working on creating the chip production factory in Northern Japan and its robots, says it has plans to operate create from 2-nm chips aimed at advanced AI using machines with artificial intelligence. Prototyping will begin for these 2-nm chips next year, but mass production is not expected until at least 2027, Nikkei Asia reported Monday.

Rapidus to Build 2nm Chips

That automation speeds things up and might let Rapidus ship chips in a third of the time it takes other companies to get their products out. The firm plans to finalize the external facade of its fab this October, whereas EUV lithography devices are expected in December. Rapidus’ full-automation factory is meant to propel the company past conventional semiconductor fabs. In front-end processes like EUV lithography, the level of automation is already quite high; there are still plenty off-line by hand in back-end processes such as interconnection, packaging, and testing.

Now Rapidus wants to take it one step further in fully automating these phases of the process so that each time I boot up my Jenkins or CircleCI instance after a break — all goes super smooth. According to Atsushi Koike, President of Rapidus Corporation, this will deliver higher performance and shorter lead times than other companies making 2-nm-knot chips with reasonable costs.

The rapid delivery of AI chips is essential for Rapidus as it lags two years behind competitors TSMC and Samsung who will start production in 2025. The AI accelerator market is projected to expand by 250% this year, underscoring the importance of rapid production. If Rapidus can stay on this course, without a decrease in price or quality of service, its market share could grow substantially. Speedier delivery would give data centers and AI firms more versatility in their computing.

But getting Rapidus up and running of course has faced some setbacks. Prototyping will cost at least 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) and mass production more than 3 trillion yen ($20 billion). While the Japanese government has promised Rapidus 920 billion yen, without successful commercialization of its technology to date, businesses are wary.

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