Japan's three megabanks plan to provide loans totaling up to around ¥2 trillion in stages from fiscal 2027 to Rapidus.

Japan's three megabanks plan to provide loans totaling up to around ¥2 trillion in stages from fiscal 2027 to Rapidus, which aims to mass produce cutting-edge chips, sources said Thursday. This would mark the first private-sector loan to the Japanese chipmaker, with the injection of such funds expected to boost the firm's planned mass production, which requires a large amount of money. MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Mizuho Bank will hold discussions with Tokyo-based Rapidus and the Japanese government on details of the planned loans. The three banks submitted a letter of intent outlining the loans' terms. The government-affiliated Information-Technology Promotion Agency, or IPA, is expected to guarantee the loans. MUFG Bank has invested ¥300 million in Rapidus. In addition to this, the bank and the two industry peers, as well as the Development Bank of Japan, a government lender, are considering a fresh investment of up to ¥25 billion in total. The government has decided to provide about ¥1.7 trillion to the chipmaker, which aims to begin mass production in fiscal 2027. Last month, it decided to invest ¥100 billion in the company through the IPA. The government plans to spend an additional ¥1 trillion on Rapidus, including investment, in fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, while aiming to secure over ¥2 trillion in private-sector loans through debt guarantees. It also hopes to attract a total of ¥1 trillion in investments from the private sector. MUFG Bank, Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Sony Group, NEC, NTT, Denso and Kioxia have invested a total of ¥7.3 billion in Rapidus. Besides MUFG Bank, the Japanese firms plan to make additional investments in Rapidus. Companies including Fujitsu are considering newly investing in the chipmaker.

Physicists at the University of Oxford show they can assemble Schrödinger’s cat-like superpositions from far more exotic quantum ingredients.

OneAdvanced has launched what it bills as the UK’s first private, sovereign healthcare large language model trained on NHS primary-care data.

Technology shares faltered amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.