[News] Rapidus Reportedly to Install 10 EUV Machines, Aiming for Early Mass Production

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While foundry giant TSMC plans to raise its 2025 capex to USD 38-42 billion, marking an up to 40% year-on-year increase, Japan’s Rapidus is also making strides in expansion. With government support backing it up, the company reportedly aims to introduce a total of 10 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to its cutting-edge semiconductor plants, according to Japanese media outlet Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.

The Nikkan report, citing CEO Atsuyoshi Koike, suggests that the EUV machines will be installed in Rapidus’ first manufacturing facility, IIM-1, which is currently under construction, as well as in the second manufacturing building, IIM-2. Rapidus’ first foundry, featuring 2nm, is expected to kick off mass production in 2027.

Notably, in December, 2024, the EUV lithography equipment ordered by Rapidus arrived at New Chitose Airport, which marks the first introduction of EUV lithography equipment in Japan, as per a previous Nikkei report.

After installing its first EUV equipment, Rapidus has several critical milestones to be achieved ahead. According to Nikkei, the company plans to start 2nm trial production as early as April and aims to deliver 2nm chip samples to U.S. semiconductor giant Broadcom by June 2025.

In terms of the 2nm progress of other foundries, TSMC is on track to begin mass production in 2025, with Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm reportedly lined up as its initial customers.

In the meantime, Samsung, though rumored to slash its facility investment in foundry by half in 2025, will work on converting part of its 3nm lines to 2nm, as noted by Sedaily. Another Chosun Daily report notes that Samsung is said to be conducting tests for the 2nm process with tech giants such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm, which are diversifying their foundry partners.

On the other hand, after announcing the cancellation of 20A, Intel’s Panther Lake processor, the first to utilize the Intel 18A process node, will debut in the second half of 2025.

Read more

• [News] Foundry Giants’ Advanced Node Expansion Efforts Beyond 2025:  TSMC, Intel, Rapidus and More
• [News] Broadcom Reportedly Taps Rapidus for 2nm Chips, Samples Due by June

(Photo credit: Rapidus)