Atsuyoshi Koike, the Chief Executive Officer of Japanese semiconductor manufacturing firm Rapidus, told Nikkei Asia that his company is in discussions with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and several others about mass-producing processors for their respective needs.

“We are in discussions with GAFAM [Google, Apple, Facebook (META), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT)] and startups that design chips for artificial intelligence,” Koike told the news outlet.

“American customers are aware of tensions between the U.S. and China, and there are growing voices saying that they need a second vendor,” Koike added, in reference to Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), which dominates the semiconductor foundry market.

In total, Koike said there are roughly 40 to 50 potential clients having discussions with Rapidus, including numerous unnamed Chinese firms.

Separately during the interview, Koike said Rapidus started partial operation on a prototype chip line earlier this week and that it should be fully operational by the end of the month. In conjunction, Rapidus would be able to show customers data on the chips it has produced “by mid-July at the latest.”

In November 2024, the Japanese government discussed providing $65B in subsidies to the domestic semiconductor industry over “multiple years” to boost its supplies of artificial intelligence chips and other advanced processors, with Rapidus being a main beneficiary.

Rapidus has benefited from its long-standing relationship with IBM (IBM). In December 2023, the two companies announced the development of the advanced 2 nanometer node technology for processor manufacturing.