In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- Tetsuro Higashi is taking on what seems like an impossible task: Create a globally competitive semiconductor manufacturer in Japan from scratch – and do it in four years.
Most Read from Bloomberg
-
Turkey Latest: Erdogan Says Unclear If Vote Will Go to Runoff
-
Sea’s Path to Profit Paved With Layoffs, Single-Ply Toilet Paper
-
Jeffrey Epstein Keeps Haunting Wall Street Long After His Death
The 73-year-old isn’t deterred. He argues the newly created Rapidus Corp. can quickly get up to speed against the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co., with support from the Japanese government and domestic equipment makers.
Rapidus is trying to do what experts argued the country should have done decades ago as it began to lose its edge in the semiconductor industry. The state-backed firm, established in August, is spending billions of dollars on creating a cutting-edge chip foundry by 2027, a domestic asset that would fortify and bolster the Japanese economy.
“Being ahead of others and unique is the only position where you can make a lot of profit,” Higashi, Rapidus’ chairman, told Bloomberg News in an interview. “You make yourself cheap by doing something that someone else has already done.”
Even with governments from Washington to Beijing and Brussels trying to build local semiconductor capabilities, this may be the most audacious bet in the chip industry. Rapidus aims to mass produce 2-nanometer chips just two years after TSMC and Samsung, the industry leaders.
For perspective, leadership in the chip industry, or the ability to craft semiconductors at the most advanced geometries, has been concentrated in the hands of just three companies for years: TSMC, Samsung and Intel Corp. Every other rival has bowed out as they failed to keep up with the money and expertise the trio poured into each generation of silicon — and now even Intel is struggling.
“What Rapidus is trying to do is extremely challenging, but not completely impossible because it works hand in hand with global partners, with authorities of related countries jumping in when necessary,” Akira Minamikawa, an analyst at research company Omdia, said.
Read more: Japan’s Rapidus Seeks Billions of Dollars to Reboot Chip Sector
In a sense, the effort is an attempt to turn the clock back to the 1980s and 90s, when Japan was home to some of the most advanced factories in the industry. Companies such as NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp. and other once-household names lost out over time as they stopped taking the risks need to maintain the latest capabilities.