Rapidus, a semiconductor consortium backed by the Japanese government and industrial conglomerates, plans to start high-volume production of chips on its 2nm fabrication process in 2027. In a bid to ensure that all of its production capacity is used, Rapidus wants to land orders from at least one global company, essentially competing with TSMC and other foundries. But at the same time, Rapidus does not plan to be like TSMC.
Modern fabrication technologies costs billions of dollars to develop and while IBM, which is helping Rapidus with its 2nm manufacturing process has done a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to materials research and other time-consuming things, Rapidus will still have to do a lot. Equipping a fab with top-notch equipment is tremendously expensive, which is why Rapidus estimates that it is going to need around $35 billion to start making 2nm chips in 2027.
