Japan Rapidus Establishes Silicon Valley Branch in the US... Launching Market Expansion Efforts

Establishment of Subsidiary 'Rapidus Design Solution'
AI Hub Hosting NVIDIA and Intel Headquarters
Key to Securing Customers to Bring TSMC and Samsung Pie

Rapidus, tasked with the revival of Japan's semiconductor industry, has established a branch in Silicon Valley, USA, to pioneer new sales channels, Nikkei reported on the 12th. Attention is focused on whether Rapidus, which lacks industry recognition and performance, can secure enough customers to recoup its investment.

According to the report, on the 11th (local time), Rapidus established 'Rapidus Design Solution' (RDS) in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, USA. Santa Clara is regarded as a hub for AI companies, hosting headquarters of leading US semiconductor companies such as Nvidia and Intel. Rapidus plans to secure potential customers there.

Atsuyoshi Koike, president of Rapidus, attended the opening ceremony and said, "In the early stages of the business, securing customers in Silicon Valley, where leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies gather, is very important," adding, "We will ensure that Rapidus receives the best support from Japan and the US to address customers' design and manufacturing requirements."

However, the outlook for Rapidus securing customers after entering the US market is not entirely bright. This is because Nvidia, a leader in AI semiconductor design, outsources manufacturing to Taiwan's TSMC, and Microsoft (MS) plans to entrust production to Intel. It is also known that Tenstorrent, a startup collaborating with Rapidus on AI semiconductor development, has already signed a supply contract with Samsung Electronics.

In response, Rapidus plans to adopt a differentiation strategy by accepting small orders from startups and providing rapid manufacturing services. The goal is to improve manufacturing efficiency through AI-based analysis and reduce delivery times to less than half compared to competitors. Additionally, instead of processing multiple wafers (semiconductor substrates) simultaneously, Rapidus will adopt a 'single wafer method' that processes wafers one by one to detect defects early, targeting a niche market in foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing).

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Japanese government intensified efforts to revive the semiconductor industry by providing Rapidus with additional support of up to 590 billion yen (approximately 5.27 trillion won). With this additional support decision, Rapidus's cumulative funding approaches 920 billion yen (approximately 8.2 trillion won). Rapidus currently aims to mass-produce advanced 2nm (nanometer; 1nm = one billionth of a meter) semiconductor chips by 2027.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.