Editor’s Note
This article highlights how a facility in Trujillo, Extremadura, is producing lab-grown diamonds in weeks—a process that mimics nature over millennia—positioning the region at the forefront of sustainable innovation.
In Trujillo, a 6,000-square-meter facility has put Extremadura on the global innovation map. Since 2023, Diamond Foundry has been producing synthetic diamonds there that are identical to natural ones, replicating the pressure and heat of the Earth’s interior in a laboratory. The process, which takes thousands of years in nature, is completed in just four weeks thanks to 20 plasma reactors capable of crystallizing pure carbon at over 1,000 degrees and under extreme pressures.
The plant not only supplies the jewelry market but is also working on one of the most ambitious developments in the technology industry: single-crystal diamond wafers that could revolutionize microchip manufacturing.
Diamond Foundry has designed and built its own technology to produce semiconductor-grade diamond wafers. According to the company, this material offers thermal and electrical advantages that far surpass silicon, to the point that it can improve computing speed in data centers and accelerate the performance of artificial intelligence chips by 300%.
In power electronics applications, such as electric vehicle charging systems, it would allow the manufacture of components six times smaller, reducing size and consumption. In wireless communications, it could triple the signal transmission distance. The company summarizes its goal with a slogan:
The Trujillo project is part of a 30-year roadmap. In its first decade, the company focused on proving that synthetic diamonds could replace natural ones in jewelry. Starting in 2023, it began introducing diamond wafers into the technology industry, and by 2033, it plans to use them as full semiconductors, claiming to leverage their 17,200 times greater electrical performance compared to silicon.
Founded by engineers from MIT, Stanford, and Princeton, Diamond Foundry claims to control over 90% of the global market for large diamonds and has been profitable for five consecutive years.
With an initial investment of 275 million euros and 81 million in aid approved by the European Commission, the plant already employs dozens of specialized engineers and technicians and plans to expand its workforce in the coming years. Furthermore, its activity opens the door to attracting an ecosystem of auxiliary companies related to high technology, consolidating Extremadura as an industrial hub in southern Europe.
