Japan invests another 3.6 billion euros in semiconductors

Japan will invest the equivalent of 25 billion euros over three years to make up for its gap in semiconductors, with a new contribution of 3.6 billion euros to finance the construction of a cutting-edge chip foundry by the Japanese group Rapidus on the island of Hokkaido.

Japan will invest the equivalent of 25 billion euros over three years to make up for its gap in semiconductors. AP - John Minchillo

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From our correspondent in Tokyo,

Frédéric Charles

Japan dreams of making up for a gap of around ten years on the Taiwanese TSMC and the South Korean Samsung in the industry of the most efficient chips in order to provide Japanese companies with the components they need for their electric cars, their devices connected, their artificial intelligence platforms.

Having the advantage of being close to Taiwan, Japan convinced TSMC, the world leader in semiconductor production, to build on its soil two to four foundries for the future generation of chips of barely two nanometers, enough to concentrate 50 billion transistors on the size of a fingernail.

TSMC, whose clients are Nvidia and Apple, wants to diversify its industrial capacities in Japan above all, but also in the United States and Germany in the event of an invasion of Taiwan by China. World leader in this industry until the 1990s, Japan has a long experience in chip production. The construction of TSMC's first factory in the south of the archipelago was completed in just 22 months.

Japan is also financing the construction by the Japanese consortium Rapidus of a 100% Japanese foundry which brings together Sony, Toyota, NTT, in collaboration with the American IBM. This Japanese strategy aims to consolidate the relationship between Japan, Taiwan and the United States in semiconductors to better resist Chinese pressure.

Also read: Battle of the semiconductors: cutting-edge technology manufacturer ASML trapped by the war between Washington and Beijing

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