There’s no sugarcoating that what Japan’s Rapidus is trying to do requires the same kind of technical precision and government support as the Apollo missions.

The barely three-year-old state-backed venture aims to leapfrog generations of innovation, vaulting straight into mass production of bleeding-edge 2-nanometer logic chips, the most advanced engines of digital devices — a feat so complex and expensive that just a few veteran chipmakers in the world even dare try it. Attempting the impossible, and racking up a mountain of government funding in the process, give skeptics a lot of ammunition.

If Rapidus pulls it off, though, this moonshot could rewrite the history of Japan’s tech industry.