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The story
In a speech in the United States, Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike revealed a plan to build a semiconductor factory on the moon by around 2040. Citing the presence of water resources on the moon, he reportedly said, “This isn’t a joke — it’s a serious plan.” The remark split opinion on 5ch’s science news board. Many dismissed it outright over transport costs and the scarcity of water, saying things like “Get your feet on the ground before fantasizing,” while others defended the idea with detailed technical explanations of how the moon’s low gravity and vacuum environment could benefit semiconductor manufacturing — making for a debate that couldn’t be reduced to simple pros and cons.
Rapidus Eyes Semiconductors on the Moon — CEO “Serious” About Building a Factory
[New York, Kyodo] Atsuyoshi Koike, CEO of Rapidus, which aims to bring next-generation semiconductor production to Japan, revealed in a speech in the United States on the 10th that the company has a plan to build a semiconductor factory on the moon by around 2040.
Koike cited the presence of water resources on the moon needed for semiconductor manufacturing, saying, “This isn’t a joke — it’s a serious plan.”
Source: news.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Won't happen even in 50 years.
If people live there and build factories, the moon will get heavier, which will make it drift closer to Earth and orbit faster.
Tides will hit multiple times, throwing animals' internal clocks into chaos.
Earth will also stretch and contract more under the moon's pull, raising the planet's internal temperature.
That would trigger volcanic activity on a scale not seen since prehistoric times, with catastrophic eruptions everywhere.
Those eruptions would spew massive amounts of CO2 and methane, accelerating global warming.
Japan's average temperature would top 35°C even in the dead of winter, and over 50°C in summer.
Don't develop it.
If you can corner that market, you'll make a fortune.
…though who's actually going to fund a moon base is another question.
And Rapidus is going to develop that spacecraft with the money it's earned?
PM Takaichi is way too invested in this company.
How much has actually been poured into this one company by now?
Exactly this.
Replying to myself, but I looked it up — 2.9 trillion yen cumulative.
Must be a bubble economy inside that company. Sounds fun.
Is it purely about water resources?
Or is it about solar power, gravity effects, that kind of thing?
Honestly, even factoring all that in, when you think about the capital investment and the cost of shipping materials and products back and forth, it doesn't seem realistic.
A small-scale experiment might be one thing,
but doing it commercially — no matter how seriously they've thought it through — just doesn't feel realistic.
Also, is it even settled that companies are allowed to just use lunar land and resources however they want?
I mean in terms of ownership rights and all that.
Water on the moon is extremely precious.
Can they even set up a closed water-recycling loop using that precious lunar water?
At the very least, if humans go there, the water will get used up by the humans.
Unless physical AI handles the entire process on its own, including the water recycling.
It's accumulated over hundreds of millions of years from water that migrated from Earth.
At the poles there's plenty in ice form, and if you dig into the ground you find it as hydrated minerals in rock.
There are three reasons to build a semiconductor fab on the moon:
• Lower gravity lets crystals form more cleanly, boosting yield — good for miniaturization.
• Since the outside is already a vacuum, clean-room (vacuum) costs are cheap.
• Producing at the lunar poles gives access to extreme cryogenic conditions at low cost, opening the door to cooling even further than cryogenic etching (-60°C).
That said, 2040 is way too ambitious a target — pulling it off would need literally all of Elon Musk's personal fortune lol.
With AI in the mix too, humans reaching the moon in force will happen before we know it.
but when told to funnel tax-funded budget their way,
they were told, 'Say it, then!'
That's the story I imagined.
Integrated circuits, not so much.
If the CEO is saying stuff like this, is this really the level Rapidus is at? The writing's basically on the wall at this point.
Meanwhile their rivals are chasing far more advanced things.
This is exactly what PM Takaichi wants from Rapidus, isn't it.
Is there something they're trying to cover up?
Isn't this just a pretext to get a second helping of government funding?
Though honestly it's so dumb I doubt even the government would fall for it.
they should be making vacuum tubes.
CRT monitors would work fine too. If you're using them in a vacuum, you wouldn't even need the glass casing.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Rapidus is a next-generation semiconductor manufacturer established in 2022 under government leadership, and it has received massive public funding while aiming for mass production of 2nm-class chips. Within the thread, some posters cited a specific figure — “2.9 trillion yen cumulative” — to question the scale of the funding, though it’s worth noting this came from an individual poster’s own research and hasn’t been independently verified. The debate mainly split along two lines. One was the technical question of whether building on the moon actually makes sense: while many voiced skepticism over transport costs and the scarcity of water, others pushed back with specific technical points about how low gravity could improve crystal yield and how vacuum and extreme-cold conditions could be obtained at no extra cost — a nuance that’s easy to miss if you don’t know the technical background, making the exchange look like mere mockery. The other point of contention was CEO Koike’s own management track record, with skeptics invoking his past business history (a massive loss and subsequent spinoff at Western Digital). It’s also worth noting that “around 2040” is only a target at the conceptual stage, not a confirmed plan — a nuance easy to miss if you only glance at the headline.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Space Development] Rapidus Eyes Semiconductors on the Moon — CEO “Serious” About Building a Factory.”
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