Recently, Junichi Koike, the president of Japan's cutting-edge semiconductor company Rapidus, made a significant announcement in Washington, USA. He revealed that the company has ambitions to construct a semiconductor factory on the moon's surface by around 2040, underscoring the seriousness of this venture. Koike highlighted that the permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles harbor a relatively substantial concentration of water ice. If this resource can be successfully mined and processed, it has the potential, in theory, to be refined into the ultrapure water essential for chip manufacturing. This, in turn, would circumvent the exorbitant costs associated with transporting such water from Earth.
