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Rapidus has reportedly not made working 2 nm SRAM cells, a milestone due by summer 2026, Bloomberg reports. The company still targets fiscal 2027 and declined to discuss technical details.
Chips & Power DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
Rapidus's illustration of its IIM-1 fab in Chitose, Hokkaido, where the company says its 2 nm pilot line has run since April 2025. The image is a rendering, not a photograph.
Image: Rapidus
Source · Press image from the Rapidus website, used for news reporting.
Rapidus has reportedly not yet produced working SRAM cells on its 2 nm process, a milestone it needed by summer 2026, and Bloomberg reports the company is likely to miss its March 2028 mass-production deadline.
Bloomberg reported the delay on Nov. 10, citing people familiar with the matter, according to Taiwan's TechNews, which carried the report. Hardwareluxx, which cites the Japan Times, says Rapidus is several months behind its original timeline. The company has not confirmed either report. Rapidus has not published SRAM yield data, and neither report puts a figure on the shortfall.
Rapidus did not concede a slip. It officially still targets mass production in the second half of fiscal 2027, which ends in March 2028, and declined to discuss the technical difficulties, Hardwareluxx says.
SRAM is the small, fast memory a processor keeps beside its logic, built from the same transistors. A test array of SRAM cells is one of the first things a new process must get working, because each cell reacts to small variations in those transistors; Hardwareluxx and TechNews both frame it as the step needed before mass production. Hardwareluxx notes that Rapidus showed working transistors on its 2 nm process in July 2025, and that its public progress since then has mostly been the release of process design kits (PDKs), the files customers use to lay out chips.
The reports add a second problem. Rapidus has reportedly not yet fully solved control of dust and other particles in its cleanrooms, another factor that drives yield. The company says its pilot line has run at its Chitose, Hokkaido hub since April 2025.
The Japanese government has planned more than 2 trillion yen in state support, Hardwareluxx says, with the aim of building domestic leading-edge logic production and cutting dependence on foreign foundries. Hardwareluxx adds that a larger delay could endanger further funding and the company's planned IPO by 2032.
Rapidus has partnerships with 17 chip-design-related companies, including Synopsys and Infosys, according to TechNews, which republished MoneyDJ's report. No confirmed foundry customer is named. As Voltgrid reported, HCLTech and Rapidus opened design centers in Bengaluru and Hubli on Oct. 26 for mask design, process design kit, DTCO and layout work, but that was design staffing, not wafer orders.
TechNews quotes two analysts. Kazuyoshi Saito of IwaiCosmo Securities said it is very difficult for a fab to run around the clock, hold stable yields and stay commercially viable at once. Nori Chiou of White Oak Capital said Rapidus's biggest problem is still who will supply enough orders to fill its fab capacity. The gap to TSMC, Samsung and Intel, which are also advancing their own leading-edge processes, is widening, Hardwareluxx says.
Rapidus has not confirmed the SRAM problem or the cleanroom issue, and no revised mass-production date has been given. The sources differ on how far behind the company is, and Bloomberg's report rests on unnamed people. The next signals to watch are any public SRAM or yield data from Rapidus, a named volume customer, and whether the government's funding conditions change if the March 2028 date moves.
