Fujitsu to develop 1.4nm NPU

Fujitsu has applied to Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) to join a  project to design and fab a 1.4nm NPU.

The chip would be fabbed by Rapidus at its second fab which is targeting 1.4 nm production and is due to start construction in FY 2027 for first production in 2029.

The project is costed at $363 million of which NEDO will pay two thirds. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is also expected to cover some of the costs.

When  manufactured, in 2029, the 1.4 nm NPU will be co-packaged with Fujitsu’s Arm-based Monaka CPUs which are to be made on TSMC’s 2nm process in 2027, and the integrated NPU/CPU package will be installed in Japan’s  Fugaku NEXT supercomputer among other applications.

Last month, Rapidus gained its first customer with Canon, an investor in Rapidus, saying it will order 2nm test chips via Synopsys for imaging applications.

Rapidus faces a funding gap of around $26 billion to complete its second fab. So far about $11 billion has been raised from government and local investors but the costs of Rapidus’ Fabs 1 & 2 are estimated at $33-46 billion.

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