Japan plans to budget 350 billion yen (about 17.15 billion yuan or $2.38 billion) for research cooperation with the United States on next-generation semiconductor development, according to the Nikkei.
The latest bill also includes a budget of 1 trillion yen that will be used to diversify the supply chain for batteries, permanent magnets and rare earths. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a ¥3 trillion investment in next-generation areas, including semiconductors, with slightly less than ¥1 trillion expected to be invested in batteries and robotics.
The joint research center will be established by the end of this year with the goal of developing and having the ability to mass-produce advanced semiconductors on 2-nanometer chips in the latter half of the 20th century.
The names of the participating Japanese companies and other details will be announced this month. The University of Tokyo, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and RIKEN, as well as companies and research institutes in the United States and Europe, will participate.
According to the report, the spending is included in the second supplemental budget bill for the current fiscal year, which will also include 450 billion yen for Japan’s advanced semiconductor production center (if you include the 617 billion yen in last year’s supplemental budget, this effort will cost more than 1 trillion yen) and 370 billion yen to secure the materials essential for making chips.
The Japanese government has now approved subsidies for TSMC, Armor Man and Micron Technology of the United States to build factories in Japan to produce semiconductors needed for data centers, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.
