Japan's Rapidus to unveil chip plant location on Tuesday -local govt

TOKYO (Reuters) -The head of Japan's state-backed chip venture Rapidus will visit the northern island of Hokkaido on Tuesday to inform Governor Naomichi Suzuki of its decision regarding the location of a planned semiconductor plant, the local government said.

Suzuki visited Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike this month to ask him to build the plant in Hokkaido.

Public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday that Rapidus, which last year announced a tie up with International Business Machines Corp to develop and produce cutting-edge two-nanometre chips, has decided to pick Chitose in southwestern Hokkaido as the site for the plant.

Chitose, a city of about 100,000 people, is a manufacturing hub that includes plants for silicon wafer maker SUMCO Corp and auto components maker Denso Corp.Rapidus Chairman Tetsuro Higashi told Reuters this month that the company would need about 7 trillion yen ($51.4 billion) of mostly taxpayer money to begin mass producing advanced logic chips around 2027.

The Rapidus factory and a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co plant under construction on the southern island of Kyushu are the key pillars of Japan's strategy to boost its capability to make more advanced chips and shield itself from supply chain snarls.

($1 = 136.1500 yen)

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mayu Sakoda; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Edwina Gibbs)