You are currently viewing SemiWiki as a guest which gives you limited access to the site. To view blog comments and experience other SemiWiki features you must be a registered member. Registration is fast, simple, and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
Rapidus, the Japanese government-backed semiconductor consortium, announced that the price of its 2nm chips will be 10 times that of the current mainstream chip products produced by other Japanese firms, and there do exist customers who are willing to pay for it.
www.digitimes.com
Rapidus, the Japanese government-backed semiconductor consortium, announced that the price of its 2nm chips will be 10 times that of the current mainstream chip products produced by other Japanese firms.
The head of Rapidus, a semiconductor consortium backed by the Japanese government that was established to leapfrog the world's leading makers of chips, estimates that the cost of its 2nm chips will be a tenfold increase compared to the standard chips made by other Japanese companies today. That makes sense because most chips made in Japan are on older mature nodes that are sold at far less expensive pricing than newer nodes, like 7nm and smaller. Yet, there are companies that are willing to pay such prices when the company expects to start 2nm production in 2027.
The head of Rapidus, a semiconductor consortium backed by the Japanese government that was established to leapfrog the world's leading makers of chips, estimates that the cost of its 2nm chips will be a tenfold increase compared to the standard chips made by other Japanese companies today. That makes sense because most chips made in Japan are on older mature nodes that are sold at far less expensive pricing than newer nodes, like 7nm and smaller. Yet, there are companies that are willing to pay such prices when the company expects to start 2nm production in 2027.
Not a great cost comparison but he is certainly setting expectations high. Probably a good thing with IBM involved. Hopefully the TSMC build in Japan goes well so they can continue to partner and build more fabs. I really do have high hopes for this project.
This is a simplistic view to hold. For one as Fred has posted we are talking about ancient 200mm fabs making like 130nm as our comparison point. The Japanese logic fabs are so old that even the shells are depreciated by now. Combine this with the dream of "single wafer processing" and being 10x the cost is not exactly surprising even if it was Samsung or TSMC process tech. Finally there is the issue of TTM. 2027 means they will be 2 years behind their dep and yield curves compared to TSMC/Samsung (assuming they mean HVM and not risk starts in 2027).
Japanese chip companies have a wide variety of processes. My first guess would be the 40-65 nm from TPSCo, Fujitsu or Renesas, but there are also quite a few 200 mm fabs as nghanayem has pointed out. Kioxia is also Japanese mainstream but not logic.
