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IBM partners with Japan’s Rapidus in bid to manufacture advanced chips

By Tim Kelly and Jane Lanhee Lee for Reuters – IBM Corp and Rapidus, a newly formed chip maker backed by the Japanese government, on Tuesday announced a partnership that aims to manufacture the world’s most advanced chips in Japan by the second half of the decade.

The agreement comes as U.S.-China relations remain tense, especially over chips. Washington has restricted Beijing’s access advanced semiconductor technology and asked its allies, including Japan, to do the same. Japan, which long ago lost its lead on chip manufacturing, particularly advanced semiconductors, is rushing to catch up and ensure its carmakers and information technology companies do not run short of the key component.

“It will take several trillions of yen,” to get pilot production up and running, Rapidus president Atsuyoshi Koike said at a news conference in Tokyo. He didn’t say where the money would come from, or where in Japan it would build a foundry… Full article

Source: https://www.reuters.com

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