Jan. 05, 2026 –
New Hokkaido foundry leads Japan’s push back to top-tier chipmaking with 2nm production ready by 2027
By Scott Foster, Asia Times
Rapidus, Japan’s effort to create a domestic chip-making alternative to TSMC and Samsung Foundry, is becoming a broad-based national industrial project of a kind Americans might dream about but that only China, Taiwan and South Korea could possibly match.
The plan is to build a state-of-the-art logic integrated circuit foundry and start commercial production at the 2-nanometer node in 2027. The facility is currently being built in Chitose near Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido. According to an unconfirmed but widely cited report in the Japanese press, Rapidus is targeting 1.4nm production by the end of the decade.