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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba revealed the $65 billion plan this week. Reuters saw an early draft of the proposal, which is scheduled to be submitted during the country's next parliament session, and notes its support of domestic chipmaker Rapidus among others.
The homegrown semiconductor manufacturer was founded in 2022 with support from several major Japanese tech companies including Sony and Kioxia, and entered into a strategic partnership with IBM in December 2022. The outfit expects to start mass production of advanced chips built on a 2nm process by 2027. It is an ambitious goal, but one that could be helped along with a significant infusion of cash.
[...] As Tom's Hardware highlights, it took many years for established players like TSMC to get to where they are today. The publication questions whether or not Japan has enough workers with the skills necessary to achieve their goals. As we have seen both domestically and abroad, finding workers with the smarts to get the job done can be a real challenge. Even China, with its heavy investments and accusations of IP theft, hasn't been able to compete toe to toe with leading chipmakers.
It remains to be seen whether or not Japan's investment will pay off, but it is hard not to think that increased competition will benefit the masses via lower prices and a more robust supply chain.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by pkrasimirov on Monday November 18 2024, @01:40PM (2 children)
Japan is too close to China for comfort. If Pooh goes with his plan to conquer Taiwan in 2027 then Japan will be in the hot waters too. I wonder what's the actual USA/EU plan, because so far it looks like nothing.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 18 2024, @02:41PM
The default plan of inaction is that Japan remilitarizes, complete with nuclear weapons. South Korea will be in the real hot waters, sandwiched between China and Japan.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Monday November 18 2024, @10:16PM
The 2027 thing is essentially entirely the Pentagon's invention, because they believe China's economy will collapse and they will no longer out-produce the US in heavy ship manufacturing anymore around 2028. So they think China has to exploit their short term competitive to seize Taiwan before the US can catch back up in naval capacity.
Essentially no one in China's government thinks that 2027 is some kind of goal for conquering Taiwan. And by and large Chinese doctrine surrounding Taiwan is that if they go too far in being US friendly and claiming independence, a cuba-style blockade is all they'll need to "resolve" the situation.
Both sides are a bit of wishcasting(Taiwan will absolutely not politically buckle under an embargo, and the US has no actual strategy to improve our shipbuilding capacity), but I think your version's understanding is pretty dumb.