Japan's Rapidus Forms Semiconductor Design Alliance with Toshiba and 16 Others

【Financial News, Tokyo = Correspondent Hye-jin Seo】Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus will form a design-support alliance with 17 companies, including Toshiba Information Systems, a Toshiba affiliate. The strategy is aimed at helping Japanese companies that lack advanced semiconductor design personnel develop chips and secure more production orders. Rapidus is seeking to expand its customer base by following the design ecosystems built by Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
According to Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 5th, Rapidus will work with Toshiba Information Systems, Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), and TOPPAN to support customers' semiconductor design work. Japanese design service providers NSW and Mavis Design, along with U.S. companies Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems and India's Infosys, will also participate.
Established in 2022, Rapidus is a semiconductor foundry. It has secured cumulative support totaling 3 trillion yen (approximately 25.51 trillion won) from the Japanese government, with the goal of mass-producing advanced 2-nanometer semiconductors in the second half of fiscal 2027. However, the shortage of advanced semiconductor design personnel in Japan means that the number of customers able to entrust production to Rapidus remains limited, posing a key challenge.
Rapidus plans to expand its potential customer base through this partnership. Even companies with limited design expertise will be able to develop their own semiconductors with support from the partner firms. The strategy is to identify demand from companies seeking to equip automobiles and production equipment with chips tailored to their specific applications, then convert that demand into production orders for Rapidus.
The participating companies will divide their roles according to their areas of expertise. Their support will cover everything from logic design, which determines semiconductor functions, to physical design, which implements circuits, and architectural design, which determines a chip's structure, enabling them to respond to a wide range of orders.
The Nikkei reported, "Samsung Electronics and TSMC, which are competitors, also operate similar cooperation systems with design-support companies." More than 20 design-support firms participate in TSMC's network. The aim is to reduce the time and burden customers face when developing semiconductors and convert that into production orders.
Rapidus is also expanding cooperation with suppliers of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) and design tools. It plans to bring together companies supporting design and production into a single ecosystem, lowering the barrier for customers to enter contract manufacturing.
For Rapidus, which has relied on government support, securing a stable pipeline of work is essential to becoming self-sustaining. By March, it had received investments totaling 167.6 billion yen (approximately 1.42 trillion won) from 32 private-sector companies. However, actual production orders will be necessary to generate steady cash flow.
The Nikkei pointed out, "For Rapidus to generate cash flow on its own and continue its business, securing customers will be a key challenge going forward." 


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