Rapidus announced that it has completed a funding round of 267.6 billion yen (approximately $1.715 billion / 11.761 billion yuan), with capital coming from the Japanese government and private enterprises. The Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) under Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) invested 100 billion yen, while private companies including Canon, Sony, Fujitsu, and SoftBank invested 167.6 billion yen. This additional capital, combined with the 7.3 billion yen raised at Rapidus's inception, brings the total capital to 274.95 billion yen.
This investment also makes the Japanese government the largest shareholder in Rapidus, holding approximately 10% of voting shares, with the remainder being non-voting shares. According to the disclosed financing structure, if Rapidus encounters any financial or operational issues, the Japanese government can choose to increase its stake to 50%. Additionally, the Japanese government will receive "golden shares," granting it final veto power over major changes at Rapidus to enhance the company's resilience against economic security risks.
Recently, Rapidus CEO Atsushi Koike stated that the company is actively negotiating with over 60 companies looking to design chips for artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and edge computing. Since the beginning of this year, demand for cutting-edge chips has surged, with growing interest in 2nm process technology. Rapidus plans to advance the development of 1.4nm and 1nm process nodes to meet market demands.
