If Volkswagen, Bosch, Infineon, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bank and three other heavyweight companies came together in Germany with state support to found a new company, there would be a great outcry. The Cartel Office and the European Commission, regulatory friends of free competition and left-wing opponents of economic power would raise objections. The success of the project would be more than uncertain.
There was no outcry in Japan as Toyota, Denso, Sony, Kioxia, NEC, NTT, Softbank and MUFG Bank now formed Rapidus. The consortium brings together the leading companies in Japan and some of the world in the automotive, automotive component suppliers, image sensors, memory chips, telecommunications and finance sectors. Rapidus is to develop and produce state-of-the-art microchips in just five years. The government supports this as a first down payment with the equivalent of almost half a billion euros. But the success of the attempt to forge a national semiconductor champion is uncertain.