Top executives from seven major manufacturers including TSMC, Intel, Applied Materials, and Samsung gathered in Japan

Source: Xinzhixun

    On May 18th, according to reports from Nikkei News, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Reuters, the Japanese government has invited executives from seven major semiconductor factories around the world, including TSMC, Intel, Applied Materials, and Samsung, to visit Japan. They will have talks with Japan‘s SX as soon as today, hoping to expand their factories and cooperation in Japan. According to industry interpretation, with the continuation of geopolitical tension, this is the summit of the "Chip 4" alliance of Taiwan, the United States, Japan, and South Korea in Japan.

    According to reports, a total of seven semiconductor industry leaders attended the meeting, including TSMC Chairman Andy Lau, Intel CEO Kissinger, Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Department Head Qing Guixian, Meguiar CEO Merota, IBM Senior Vice President and Research Director Gil, President of Applied Materials Semiconductor Product Group Raja, and Executive Vice President of World Strategic Cooperation at Belgian semiconductor research and development institution Imec, Miguel.

    TSMC also confirmed to the public yesterday (17th) that Liu Deyin will attend the meeting, but the company did not disclose any details or possible cooperation directions. Foreign media expect the invited company to introduce its investment and career development plans in Japan.

    Foreign media reported that during this meeting, Japanese Minister of Economy and Industry Nishimura Yasumi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara, and other high-ranking Japanese officials will all attend. Kishida will urge these semiconductor giants to invest in Japan and cooperate with Japanese companies. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Matsuno pointed out in an interview that the resilience of the semiconductor supply chain cannot be achieved by a single country, and it is extremely important to work together with countries and regions with similar concepts.

    Industry insiders pointed out that among the big names attending this meeting, Imec, a Belgian semiconductor research and development institution, has attracted much attention. This institution is a non-profit research center, with a forward-looking research and development technology that is three to ten years ahead of the industry. It has cooperation plans with major semiconductor factories around the world and is also an important partner of the TSMC Open Innovation Platform Design Center Alliance. This invitation to attend reflects Japan‘s determination to continue laying out advanced manufacturing processes.

    Japan continues to recruit TSMC to expand its second factory in Japan in order to lay out advanced manufacturing processes. The industry believes that if TSMC expands its second factory in Japan in the future, it will invest in advanced process production below 7nm to support local automotive and overseas consumer application needs in Japan, as well as future production needs of Japanese partners and international customers.

    TSMC‘s Kumamoto new factory in Japan is under construction, mainly targeting mature special processes such as 22/28nm and 12/16nm. Due to strong support from the Japanese government, the capital expenditure of the factory has increased from approximately $7 billion to $8.6 billion, and the production capacity has also increased from the initial target of 45000 to 55000 pieces per month. It is expected to be completed in September 2023, put into production in April 2024, and shipped from December of the same year.

    Japan is actively revitalizing its domestic chip industry. The market share of Japanese companies in the global semiconductor market has dropped to about 10%, far below around 50% in the late 1980s. The Japanese government hopes to increase domestic semiconductor related sales to 15 trillion yen (109.9 billion US dollars) by 2030, reaching three times the current level.

    In order to achieve this goal, Japan is actively introducing leading overseas semiconductor manufacturing companies while also building a leading domestic wafer manufacturing company. In August 2022, Rapidus, a Japanese wafer foundry enterprise, was officially established. It was jointly funded by 8 Japanese companies, including Toyota, Sony, NTT, NEC, Softbank, Denso, NAND Flash giant Kioxia, and Mitsubishi UFJ, with a total investment of 7.3 billion yen each. The Japanese government will also provide 70 billion yen in subsidies as part of its research and development budget. The goal is to start mass production of 2nm advanced process chips in 2027, five years from now. The target of Rapidus‘ localization plan is advanced logic chips used for autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI), and other purposes.

    In April of this year, Rapidus President Junichi Kochi announced the construction of the company‘s first 2nm factory in Chisui City, Hokkaido. The Qiansui factory will build two or more factories, and in addition to 2nm, a 1nm wafer foundry will also be built.

    In terms of technology sources, Rapidus reached a strategic partnership with IBM in December last year. The two sides will work together to promote the development of IBM‘s groundbreaking 2nm process technology, which will be imported into the Hokkaido Qiansui factory that has been decided to build.

    According to the latest report of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Rapidus has completed the preparation of one EUV lithography equipment, and it is estimated that the revenue of Rapidus will reach 1 trillion yen in the 2030‘s.

    Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike said in an interview, ‘We have introduced artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology, and we have about 500 engineers.‘ Typically, large-scale production of the most advanced semiconductors requires about 1000 engineers, and Koike emphasized that with automation and other technologies, only about half of the manpower is needed to cope. It is estimated that mass production will begin in 2027, and the revenue in the 2030‘s (2030-2039‘s) will reach 1 trillion yen.

    When it comes to competition with TSMC, Kochi Chunyi said, "In the next generation of chips, Rapidus and TSMC are competitors. However, compared to TSMC, which covers all fields, Rapidus will focus on applications such as AI and supercomputer chips, so the competition should not be that big