The Government is preparing one of the largest investments for business development in Spain. The State Company for Technological Transformation (SETT), the investment arm of the Ministry for Digital Transformation popularly known as SEPI Digital, is finalizing an alliance with the Spanish branch of the American company Diamond Foundry to invest 2.35 billion euros in a new high-tech factory in Trujillo (Cáceres), according to sources close to the negotiations.
This operation, the most voluminous that the holding company dependent on the department led by Óscar López, should be submitted this Tuesday to the Council of Ministers for final approval. SETT will make an outlay of 753 million euros from PERTE Chip funds, while the American company, owned by Fidelitiy and well-known investors such as the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and some of the first promoters of companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, eBay or iPod, will invest almost 1.6 billion in Spain until 2029, the same sources specify.
The operation will generate a high economic and social impact in Extremadura. The factory is expected to employ more than 2,100 workers. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 500 positions are directly employed by the factory.
This is the second largest factory that Diamond Fundry will set up in Trujillo. The company is already producing synthetic single-crystalline diamond ingots starting in 2025. This material is chemically and physically identical to natural diamond but much more sustainable. It is used for industrial applications, mainly precision cutting tools and optics. For its development, the company uses renewable energy provided by local electricity companies such as Iberdrola. This first phase was announced in 2021, when Guillermo Fernández-Vara, who recently passed away, was still president of the regional government of Extremadura. It involved an investment of 670 million euros and the creation of 1,000 jobs (300 direct and 700 indirect).
But the new factory goes a step further, both in terms of size and performance. The plant will be the first large plant in Europe to produce single-crystalline diamonds for semiconductor substrates for the development of high-performance chips. The industrial project plans to locate in Spain, and more precisely in Extremadura, a unique center in the world to supply critical material for the industries of the future (artificial intelligence, microelectronics, etc.) which will supply sectors such as defense or automotive.
The uniqueness of these projects and the positive impact for Spain meant that the negotiation was taken to the highest levels. The minister himself, Óscar López, was directly involved in the negotiations until he managed to attract the multimillion-dollar investment from the American company, sources close to the conversations say. Spain will have critical capabilities within the value chain of microchips and future technologies that will provide Europe with greater strategic autonomy, just as Brussels has made it one of its priority objectives to have its own tools that limit vulnerabilities towards third countries at a time of widespread geopolitical instability.
On the other hand, the impact of this factory for the future of the territory is fundamental, especially in a region whose skilled industrial employment is threatened in the medium term by the potential closure of Almaraz, the nuclear power plant which is now in negotiations to extend its life until 2030.
This operation, which should be approved on Tuesday by Pedro Sánchez’s Executive, takes place less than a month before the holding of regional elections in Extremadura. Vox’s lack of support for the budgets presented by the regional president, María Guardiola, led the PP baroness to bring forward the elections to December 21st. Their goal is to obtain an absolute majority to be able to govern without the impositions of Vox and with a PSOE and the brands most to the left of it in a short time.
The operation with Diamond Foundry represents a qualitative leap for SETT, which until now had supported small projects in which it invested tens of millions in each of them, far from the over 750 million outlay that this will entail. joint venture with the San Francisco (California) technology company. So far, investments of over 330 million have been quantified in companies such as Multiverse, Quantix, Sparc, Woooptix, the Spanish fund Culture CAP7 or the Portuguese fund Armilar.
Now the investment industry is accelerating and to do so it is working with some of the most important specialist investment advisors. As these media reported on October 8, the department led by Óscar López has signed a framework agreement with leading law firms in the sector such as Garrigues or Gómez-Acebo & Pombo in view of the imminent arrival of operations like the one that is taking place now.
The SETT accumulates firepower to relaunch the Spanish technological entrepreneurial fabric for up to 16,000 million euros. This company brings together a potential disbursement capacity of 10.5 billion euros by Perte Chip, another 3.3 billion euros that can be allocated to the companies with which the Next Tech Fund is equipped. To all this must be added 1.75 billion euros from the Spanish Audiovisual Hub. The Executive considers this task a priority and cannot be postponed since the European Games will have to take place by the summer of 2026.
Diamond Foundry’s commitment to Spain represents a strengthening of the country’s brand at an industrial level, just when institutions such as the OECD recommend relocating European industries to Spain for the competitiveness of its energy and qualified workforce. The American company’s project joins other bets such as that of Valladolid-based Inobat, which recently announced investments of 5 billion euros. The battery factory adds to that announced by the Chinese company Envision for Navalmoral de la Mata, also in Cáceres, the Volkswagen and PowerCo projects in Valencia or CATL and Stellantis in Zaragoza.
