Japan is ramping up efforts to revive its once dominant chip industry

Published

7 months ago

November 13, 2024

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Japan is looking to revitalize its semiconductor industry. The Japanese government has unlocked billions of dollars in subsidies for its domestic chip sector.

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Japan has announced a new plan to revitalize the country’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries as it works to regain its chip leadership.

The proposal will provide support worth 10 trillion yen ($65 billion) or more by fiscal 2030, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said earlier this week.

“We will formulate a new assistance framework to attract more than 50 trillion yen in public and private investment over the next 10 years,” Ishiba said, adding it would be part of broader “revitalization” efforts in Japan.

The plan will be part of a comprehensive economic package to be finalized in November and will be financed through subsidies, government institution investments and debt guarantees, according to local media.

The move comes amid broader efforts by Japan to bolster and diversify its semiconductor supply chain, with the government aiming to triple sales of domestically produced chips to more than 15 trillion yen by 2030.

Domestic chip hero?

One likely beneficiary of the funding announced Monday will be Japan-based Rapidus, a state-backed chip venture at the heart of the country’s chip revitalization efforts.

Founded in 2022 by the Japanese government, Rapidus has backing from a host of Japanese firms— including Toyota Motor and the Sony Group — and is collaborating with U.S. tech giant IBM.

The company has already received over $2 billion in government support as it aims to mass-produce cutting-edge 2-nanometer logic chips by 2027.

Logic chips are used to process information and complete tasks within electronic devices. The most advanced logic chips are used in technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and machine learning.

Rapidus chairman Tetsuro Higashi has reportedly called the company Japan’s “last opportunity” to regain a leading semiconductor position on the global stage as it looks to catch up with leaders like Taiwan and South Korea.

In the 1980s, Japan was the world’s dominant chip player and occupied more than half of the global semiconductor market.

However, the country began losing its leading edge with the emergence of foreign competitors like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., now the world’s dominant contract chip manufacturer, and South Korea’s Samsung.

Both Samsung and TSMC have laid out plans to begin commercial production of 2-nanometer chips by 2025.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has become a key player in chip design, with companies like Intel and Micron, while the Netherlands makes the world’s most advanced chip-making equipment through its company ASML.

Feasibility

Though it has lost its leadership in semiconductor production and manufacturing, Japan remains a leader in certain semiconductor materials and equipment, Michael Yang, senior director of semiconductors at analyst and consulting firm Omdia, told CNBC.

Through its chip subsidies, which have mostly been geared toward increasing manufacturing capacity, the country should be able to expand into other aspects of the supply and enhance its position, Yang added.

Still, regaining the chip market will be an uphill battle for Japan and will require Rapidus to find a “shortcut” in chip design and production to reach the level of advancement of leading semiconductor companies, said Brady Wang, semiconductor analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Rapidus representatives have said that the architecture of the 2-nanometer chip is different from that of 3-nanometer ones, making mass production of the former a “blank-slate challenge for all players,” and presenting a prime opportunity to break into the market.

However, in this endeavor, “subsidies are a must-have, but cannot guarantee their success,” Wang said, adding that it took TSMC over a decade to catch up to global chip firms and build relationships with customers.

“Subsidies are only a basic requirement for entering the semiconductor industry, but success requires more supportive measures, such as talent, technology, and strategic planning,” said Ken Kuo, senior research vice president at tech market intelligence firm TrendForce.

Learning from the best

In addition to trying to establish a dominant chip producer in Japan, subsidies have also been aimed at attracting the global leaders that once took its chip business.

With aid from the Japanese government, chipmakers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and Intel Corp have agreed to invest billions of dollars into Japan.

Such companies are leaders in producing memory chips used to store data, which are essential in data centers used for AI and cloud computing.

TSMC has already announced plans to build a second fabrication plant in Japan ahead of the completion of its first.

According to Counterpoint’s Wang, attracting such companies entering Japan can help the country quickly boost vertical integration across the supply chain and more quickly build up its semiconductor ecosystem.

Japan has also signed collaboration agreements — with allies such as the U.S., the U.K., Taiwan and a number of EU countries — that are aimed at advancing research and development involving next-generation semiconductors.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report

Technology

Bitcoin price rises as Israel-Iran ceasefire begins, and Senate unveils major crypto bill

Published

13 hours ago

June 24, 2025

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Bitcoin price rises as Israel-Iran ceasefire begins, and Senate unveils major crypto bill

Crypto prices, including bitcoin, rose on Tuesday after President Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

By midday Tuesday, bitcoin had passed the $105,000 level, ether jumped back above the $2,400 mark, and XRP climbed to $2.19.

The risk-on action in the markets, which also saw stocks rally on the Mideast de-escalation, wasn’t the only source of momentum, as Republican senators unveiled a major bill to set the rules of the road for crypto. Specifically, the legislation would define when crypto is a commodity or a security, allow crypto exchanges to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and reduce the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulation of digital assets — a big reversal from the plans of President Biden’s SEC Chair Gary Gensler to closely regulate the crypto industry.

The new framework was introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina and Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who heads the panel’s Digital Assets Committee. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the regulatory development was important for the U.S. to regain the lead in the crypto industry, where he said it has fallen behind other markets, including Europe.

Last week, the senate passed a stablecoin bill, marking the first major legislative win for the crypto industry, which now heads to the House for consideration of its version of the bill. Both bills prohibit yield-bearing consumer stablecoins — but differ on agency regulatory oversight. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney weighed in on the advancement of the Senate version, the Genius Act, telling CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that the credit card giant has been embracing stablecoins.

Meanwhile, investors increased their bets on crypto company Digital Asset, which raised $135 million in funding from several big names in banking and finance, including Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities. The firm, which touts itself as a regulated crypto player, said it will use the funding to advance adoption of its Canton network, which is a blockchain for financial institutions, another sign of how major financial institutions are embedding themselves into the once obscure crypto world.

Technology

Ambarella shares soar 19% on report chip designer is exploring sale

Published

18 hours ago

June 24, 2025

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Ambarella shares soar 19% on report chip designer is exploring sale

Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Ambarella shares popped 19% after a report that the chip designer is currently working with bankers on a potential sale.

Bloomberg reported the news, citing sources familiar with the matter.

While no deal is imminent, the sources told Bloomberg that the firm may draw interest from semiconductor companies looking to improve their automotive business. Private equity firms have already expressed interest, according to the report.

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Technology

Nvidia CEO Huang sells $15 million worth of stock, first sale of $873 million plan

Published

18 hours ago

June 24, 2025

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Nvidia CEO Huang sells million worth of stock, first sale of 3 million plan

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attends a roundtable discussion at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 11, 2025.

Sarah Meyssonnier | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold 100,000 shares of the chipmaker’s stock on Friday and Monday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The sales are worth nearly $15 million at Tuesday’s opening price.

The transactions are the first sale in Huang’s plan to sell as many as 600,000 shares of Nvidia through the end of 2025. It’s a plan that was announced in March, and it’d be worth $873 million at Tuesday’s opening price.

The Nvidia founder still owns more than 800 million Nvidia shares, according to Monday’s SEC filing. Huang has a net worth of about $126 billion, ranking him 12th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The 62-year-old chief executive sold about $700 million in Nvidia shares last year under a prearranged plan, too.

Nvidia stock is up more than 800% since December 2022 after OpenAI’s ChatGPT was first released to the public. That launch drew attention to Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, which were needed to develop and power the artificial intelligence service.

The company’s chips remain in high demand with the majority of the AI chip market, and Nvidia has introduced two subsequent generations of its AI GPU technology.

Nvidia continues to grow. Its stock is up 9% this year, even as the company faces export control issues that could limit foreign markets for its AI chips.

In May, the company reported first-quarter earnings that showed the chipmaker’s revenue growing 69% on an annual basis to $44 billion during the quarter.