Rapidus, Japan’s state-backed chipmaker, has signed up 17 chip design firms to help it win customers before it starts making 2-nanometre chips.

The partners will help clients design chips that suit the way Rapidus makes them. The aim is to turn that work into orders. So far, though, Rapidus has not named a single firm that has signed one.

Finding buyers is now the firm’s main test, according to a Reuters analysis. Rapidus has about $15bn in state backing. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sees it as key to rebuilding Japan’s chip industry.

“The biggest question for Rapidus is still who will actually fill the fab,” Nori Chiou, investment director at White Oak Capital, told Reuters.

Chiou added that the deals were a small step forward but not yet proof that buyers were signing up.

Chief executive Atsuyoshi Koike, however, told the agency that demand is strong enough to support one more maker of the most advanced chips.

Rapidus plans to start making chips for clients at its Hokkaido plant in the second half of Japan’s next fiscal year, which begins in April 2027.

It already runs test production with IBM, whose chip technology it uses. Koike said plans for full-scale output are on track.

Even so, it faces TSMC, Samsung, and Intel’s foundry business, which already make chips at this level. Some likely buyers told Reuters they could not move all their work away from TSMC.

Analysts also warned that a new plant is hard to run well at scale.

Looking further ahead, Rapidus aims to list its shares by March 2032. A US listing and US plants are also possible, Daishiro Yamagiwa, who leads the ruling party’s chip group in parliament, told Reuters.