TOKYO, April 11 (Reuters) - Japan's industry ministry said on Saturday it has approved an additional 631.5 billion yen ($3.96 billion) to accelerate research and development at chipmaker Rapidus.
The support is part of the government's efforts to boost domestic production of advanced semiconductors and strengthen chip supply chains.
With the latest funding, Rapidus' total research and development assistance amounts to 2.354 trillion yen.
The ministry also said that NEDO, its subordinate organisation, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, has decided to support semiconductor design-related projects by Fujitsu and IBM Japan.
Rapidus is working on the development of next-generation logic semiconductors at the 2-nanometre scale and plans to start mass production in the fiscal year 2027.
In February, the company secured a combined investment of about 160 billion yen from private companies, with a planned 250 billion yen from the government.
($1 = 159.2900 yen)
(Reporting by Miho Uranaka, writing by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Sam Holmes)
