Rapidus manufacturing unit underneath building in Hokkaido, Japan. Credit: AFP
Rapidus is anticipated to start full-scale manufacturing in fiscal 2028. Mass manufacturing of 2nm-class chips is scheduled to begin within the second half of fiscal 2027, in accordance with Kyoto News. The firm’s marketing strategy, submitted to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, outlines a method to enter quantity manufacturing in late fiscal 2027. The plan requires increasing output roughly fourfold throughout the first 12 months of operation.
Manufacturing will happen on the Rapidus plant in Chitose, Hokkaido. The firm will produce circuit-formed wafers there. At the beginning of mass manufacturing within the second half of fiscal 2027, the corporate plans an preliminary month-to-month output of 6,000 wafers. It intends to extend capability to roughly 25,000 wafers monthly over the next 12 months. The Hokkaido facility is designed to deal with each front-end wafer fabrication and back-end processes, together with dicing and packaging.
Tool ramp and yield challenges
Production of modern semiconductors requires the simultaneous ramp-up of greater than 200 manufacturing instruments. Kyoto News reported that enhancing yield via superior course of management is taken into account probably the most troublesome hurdle for the corporate. Yield efficiency instantly impacts each chip efficiency and manufacturing prices.
As a contract producer, Rapidus should safe secure orders from prospects to take care of plant utilization charges. Achieving excessive yields and making certain constant buyer acquisition stay the first challenges for the corporate’s enlargement plan.
Back-end automation technique
Separately, Nikkei reported that Yasumitsu Orii, Senior Managing Executive Officer and Head of Engineering Center at Rapidus, outlined the corporate’s superior manufacturing technique at a February 6, 2026, financial seminar in Kitakyushu.
Orii highlighted “chiplet” know-how, which integrates several types of chips onto a single substrate. He mentioned, “We will refine back-end automation technologies and take on the challenge of high-performance, leading-edge semiconductors.”
In addition to front-end fabrication, Rapidus plans to function a pilot back-end line this spring. The line will mount chips onto digital substrates. Describing progress on the Hokkaido facility, Orii said, “The front-end and back-end organizations have come together and are moving toward our goals with a seamless manufacturing line.”
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