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IT Home reported on August 11 that Japanese chipmaker Rapidus announced that the chip factory it is building in northern Japan will use robots and artificial intelligence technology to create a fully automated 2-nanometer chip production line to meet the needs of advanced artificial intelligence applications. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the company plans to start prototyping 2-nanometer chips next year, but mass production will not be achieved until 2027 at the earliest.

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Through automated production,Rapidus expects to be able to cut chip delivery time to one-third of competitorsThe company's factory's exterior structure is scheduled to be completed in October this year, and EUV lithography equipment will be put into place in December.

The fully automated factory is expected to help Rapidus gain an edge in the competitive semiconductor manufacturing sector. While the front-end processes of chip manufacturing, including EUV lithography, are already highly automated in most production facilities,However, back-end processes such as interconnection, packaging and testing are still highly dependent on manual labor.Rapidus plans to automate the entire process to improve efficiency. This will result in higher performance and faster delivery than other companies' similar 2-nanometer products, said Atsuyoshi Koike, the company's president.

For Rapidus, speeding up AI chip production is crucial because the company is two years behind TSMC and Samsung, which plan to start mass production in 2025. Especially with the AI ​​accelerator market expected to grow by 250% this year, time is of the essence.

If Rapidus can significantly reduce delivery time without sacrificing price and quality, it is expected to occupy an important position in the market.Faster delivery will give data centers and other AI companies greater planning and deployment flexibility.

Despite the optimistic outlook, Rapidus still faces some challenges before it can be fully operational. The company said that it would require 2 trillion yen (IT Home Note: currently about 97.786 billion yuan) of funding to start prototype manufacturing in 2025, and at least 3 trillion yen (currently about 146.679 billion yuan) for large-scale mass production. Although the Japanese government has pledged to provide 920 billion yen, private companies are still reluctant to fill the funding gap due to Rapidus' lack of a track record. Atsuyoshi Koike admitted that the company currently has difficulty obtaining private financing, but is actively promoting financing facilitation measures, including government loan guarantees.