TOKYO--Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Group Corp., together with six other Japanese companies, are creating a new business to design and make next-generation semiconductors by the late 2020s. The venture, called Rapidus, Latin for "rapid," comes amid rising competition among major economies for advanced chips to support applications such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Toyota, Sony and chip companies Kioxia Holdings Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., as well as SoftBank Group Corp., have each contributed about one billion yen, around $7 million, to create the venture, the Japanese government said Friday. A research center for the new business will be set up this year, the government said. "As the struggle for control of technology between the U.S. and China intensifies, the importance of semiconductors is increasing from the perspective of economic security," Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.