Japan's Rapidus mulls building chip factory in Hokkaido -TV Tokyo

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's state-backed microchip venture Rapidus, tasked to boost the country's competitiveness in advanced semiconductors, is considering building its first manufacturing plant in Hokkaido, northern Japan, TV Tokyo reported on Wednesday.

Rapidus will likely formally decide on the new factory site as early as end-February, with Chitose, a city of approximately 100,000 people in southwestern Hokkaido, being a possible location, it said.

A Rapidus spokesperson said Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki would visit its headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday to propose building the plant in his prefecture, but that nothing had been decided on plant location.

A Hokkaido prefecture official said no preliminary talks had taken place between the local government and Rapidus on the new plant ahead of the governor's visit.

No one was immediately available for comment at the Chitose city hall.

Japan has said it will invest an initial 70 billion yen ($525 million) in Rapidus, a venture led by tech firms including Sony Group Corp and NEC Corp

Rapidus told Reuters earlier this month that it would need about 7 trillion yen ($54 billion) of mostly taxpayer money to begin mass-producing advanced logic chips in around 2027.

($1 = 133.2700 yen)

(Reporting by Mayu Sakoda, Kantaro Komiya, Kaori Kaneko and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Toby Chopra and Bernadette Baum)