Rapidus Eyes Building a Chip Plant on the Moon by 2040

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Atsuyoshi Koike, chairman and CEO of Japanese chipmaker Rapidus Corp, said on Thursday, September 10, that he is seriously considering building a semiconductor manufacturing plant on the Moon by 2040, citing the Moon's water resources as necessary for chip production. Speaking at a forum in Washington hosted by the Hudson Institute, Koike confirmed this is no joke and that he is thinking of a timeframe around 2040, and he showed attendees an AI-generated video depicting a simulated manufacturing plant on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM Corp, who also attended the event, said IBM is providing technical support to Rapidus as the Japanese company prepares to mass-produce 2-nanometer semiconductors at its plant in Hokkaido, and the two companies are also jointly researching and developing even more advanced 1-nanometer semiconductors.

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Rapidus CEO floats building a chip plant on the Moon by 2040, a speculative long-term idea.

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