Spain Backs Diamond Foundry with €753m Investment

Diamond Foundry was established in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz and is a US-based manufacturer of diamonds. The company established its facility in Spain in 2023 and received funding from the European Union in late 2024.

The Spanish government has announced an investment of €753 million into the facility as part of a semiconductor support program. Diamond Foundry has projected an additional €1.6 billion in investment into the factory before 2029.

The facility is located in Trujillo (Extremadura), and initial media reports suggested it would produce around 4 million carats each year.

The majority of these diamonds were expected to be used for technology applications; however, gemstone-quality stones may also be supplied to the jewellery industry.

“Diamonds have very high thermal conductivity compared to silicon, the standard material used for most semiconductors, allowing them to disperse heat much more quickly from the base of the chip,” a report by Reuters explains.

“Researchers have long chased the synthetic ‘holy grail’ of diamond semiconductors with limited commercial success, as roadblocks around cost and production have largely thwarted developers.

“The new facility in Trujillo would be Europe's first large-scale producer of diamond substrates, the wafer-like base material on which semiconductor materials and metal conductors are layered to electronic devices.”

The investment is expected to create more than 2,100 jobs, including around 500 directly at the factory.