Editor’s Note
This article details a landmark investment in Aragon, as Zaragoza enters the global semiconductor supply chain. The €1 billion project by Diamond Foundry to manufacture synthetic diamond wafers—a key component for advanced chips—represents a significant technological and economic shift for the region.
Zaragoza is entering the global chip industry for the first time with one of the largest business developments announced in Aragon in recent years. The American company Diamond Foundry, the promoter of the synthetic diamond factory in Trujillo, will launch an advanced manufacturing plant for wafers of this material in the Aragonese capital. This is a strategic component of semiconductors used to develop high-performance chips. The investment reaches 1 billion euros and is expected to generate between 200 and 300 highly qualified jobs, according to sources familiar with the project who confirmed this to this newspaper. The activity is expected to start this same year.
The new factory will be located in the Empresarium industrial park, in the state-of-the-art facilities built by Becton Dickinson for its failed syringe plant. The North American medical technology multinational, which began test operations in 2024, plans to close a sale agreement for the complex with the new investor in the coming weeks. This operation will allow a new high-value-added industrial use for facilities that were left orphaned after the divestment.
The Zaragoza plant will be complementary to the major project that Diamond Foundry is already developing in Trujillo (Cáceres), where it has been manufacturing synthetic monocrystalline diamond since last year and will install a second, higher-performance plant. The company, backed by Fidelity and investors such as actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and with initial support from Google, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, and the creator of the iPod, has chosen Spain to install the entire value chain of its most advanced technology. This implementation has public support from the central government through SEPI Digital, which has injected 752 million euros into a joint venture.
While in Extremadura the company will focus on producing high-purity monocrystalline material, a more advanced phase of the industrial process will be carried out in the Aragonese capital. Specifically, Zaragoza will host the cutting (singulation) of synthetic diamond ingots into ultra-thin individual wafers, as well as their polishing, inspection, surface finishing, and packaging in clean rooms. This is a critical industrial phase for this material to be used as a component (substrate) for semiconductors in high-performance chips.
This is a technology considered unique on a global scale, based on single-crystal diamond (SCD), a material that dissipates heat far more effectively than silicon and allows for the manufacture of more powerful, efficient, and sustainable chips.
Diamond Foundry emphasizes that the production of these wafers also has a particularly reduced environmental profile, as it converts methane into diamond crystal using emission-free energy, which enhances the industrial appeal of the project amid the ongoing energy transition.
The project will be based on a first-class industrial complex, already built and validated for processes with high technical demands. The former Becton Dickinson plant has 20,000 square meters of built space, distributed across three production buildings, an office building, a logistics warehouse and technical infrastructure, in addition to clean rooms, laboratories, and areas prepared for maximum precision industrial operations.
Originally designed to meet the strict standards of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, the complex offers optimal conditions for advanced technological activity, which was decisive in Diamond Foundry choosing Zaragoza as the location for its new European wafer plant.
The implementation of the American technology company has had the support of the Government of Aragon and the Zaragoza City Council, which have worked in a coordinated manner to facilitate the company’s landing. Furthermore, the regional government plans to declare the project as being of general interest (DIGA), a status that will allow its processing to be prioritized and expedited.
This support comes after the financial backing received from the Spanish Government through the State Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), the investment arm of the Ministry for Digital Transformation popularly known as SEPI Digital. The public investment in the project, amounting to 753 million euros, is part of the Chip PERTE (Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation), whose objective is to strengthen the design and production capabilities of the microelectronics and semiconductor industry in Spain.
The Council of Ministers approved this financial injection last November with the aim of promoting Diamond Foundry’s expansion in Spain. The total project reaches 2.35 billion euros and positions the country as one of the few enclaves in the world capable of producing critical materials for the semiconductor industry.