Overview
- METI, which on Saturday approved an extra ¥631.5 billion in fiscal 2026 R&D funding, lifted Rapidas’s total research support to ¥2.354 trillion.
- Rapidas opened an analysis center for testing prototypes and a trial back-end site for assembly and packaging at its Chitose complex to connect wafer making with final product build.
- The ceremony drew President Koike Atsuyoshi, Chairman Azuma Tetsurou, METI Minister Akazawa Ryoma, and Hokkaido Governor Suzuki Naomichi, showing national and local backing.
- The company reports wafer fabrication prototyping is progressing and it is targeting 2-nanometer-class mass production in the second half of fiscal 2027.
- METI also said it will fund Fujitsu and Japan IBM to design power-saving AI chips expected to be manufactured at Rapidas, and support an LSTC research base in Chitose to widen Japan’s advanced-chip ecosystem.