Editor’s Note
This article details a significant joint venture between Diamond Foundry and Spain’s SETT to establish a major semiconductor component facility in Cáceres, Spain, representing a substantial investment in Europe’s tech infrastructure.
The American company Diamond Foundry – in which actor Leonardo DiCaprio is an investor – together with the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) announced on Tuesday that they will drive the installation of a high-performance chip component factory in Trujillo, Cáceres. The project will involve a total investment of 2.35 billion euros.
The joint venture between the American and Spanish companies, colloquially known as “SEPI Digital,” will thus fill the gap created after it became known this summer that the American integrated circuits company Broadcom would not build a microchip factory in Spain after failing to reach an agreement with the government. With this announcement, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, through SETT, will invest 752 million euros in Diamond Foundry, with the goal of building the plant in Trujillo.
According to the company, the chip component factory in the Cáceres locality will feature cutting-edge technology based on synthetic diamonds as a substrate. Furthermore, within the framework of the authorization granted by the Council of Ministers, the new factory will complement the existing one in Trujillo, dedicated to the production of monocrystalline diamond ingots – identical to natural ones – for industrial applications.
To carry out this project, SETT and the Spanish subsidiary of Diamond Foundry will create a joint venture, in which they will invest a total of 2.35 billion euros by 2029, of which 32% will be contributed by SEPI Digital. Regarding the project’s impact on the Spanish economy, it is estimated that during the first ten years of development, it could contribute around 2.15 billion euros to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Within the microelectronics industry, monocrystalline diamond presents enormous potential, as it is the material that offers the best performance in high-voltage, high-temperature, and high-frequency applications, thanks to its thermal and electrical properties that surpass silicon and other semiconductors. Furthermore, the project plans to expand the ingot manufacturing capabilities of Trujillo and incorporate other activities such as wafer cutting, lapping, polishing, and inspection on Spanish soil.
According to the American company, this would be the first establishment of a monocrystalline diamond (SCD) semiconductor foundry and would represent “a paradigm shift” within this industry, using diamonds as a new substrate to increase computing efficiency with lower energy expenditure. This would position Spain as the world’s largest center for diamond substrates for semiconductors, supplying major companies in the sector and covering the needs of the chip manufacturing, defense, automotive, and other industries.