A Study on Two Alliances for Semiconductor Industry Rebuilding of Japan; JASM vs. Rapidus

Japanese government makes all effort to rebuild the semiconductor industry. A key point of the rebuilding plan is to set up a new & advanced fabrication facility in Japan by strategic alliance. As of March 2024, two pivots of the rebuilding plan are the JASM and Rapidus. Both companies pursue a similar goal but different points also exist. So, this study intends to make clear the difference between them and to check the feasibility of each alliance purpose. For doing this, the comparative analysis is to be done for the alliance condition of JASM and Rapidus. In addition, the engagement condition of each alliance partners on system chip value chain is to be reviewed. In particular, this study manages a specific knowledge of foundry business which is very hard to imitate from two aspects, supply and demand by looking into TSMC fabs’ revenue ratio trend. As a result, it can be said that alliance purpose of Rapidus, that is to begin 2 Nano level of foundry business from 4Q 2027 is not likely to come true due to a beginner’s limitation of foundry. On the contrary, it is expected that alliance goal of JASM is to go smoothly under a leadership of TSMC.