Spain Invests $800m in Diamond Foundry Project
December 04, 25
(IDEX Online) - The Spanish government is to invest EUR 750m (USD 813m) in the manufacture of lab grown diamonds for semiconductors at Diamond Foundry's plant in Trujillo.
This is in addition to the EUR 80m (USD 85m) announced last December by the EU as initial funding for the same facility.
Trujillo will become Europe's largest high-tech diamond manufacturing hub for industrial and semiconductor-grade diamonds.
It is expected to produce over 4m carats a year when it opens, some time from 2027 to 2029. That figure will increase substantially over time.
For lab growns, the move signals the increasing importance of industrial and tech applications over jewelry.
Diamond Foundry was established in the US in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, both with technical and engineering rather than diamond backgrounds.
From 2018 the company started looking into industrial applications for lab growns and it is now pivoting heavily toward industrial and semiconductor applications.
Lab growns are ideal for semiconductors because they have exceptionally high thermal conductivity and wide-bandgap properties, allowing chips to operate faster and cooler than with conventional silicon.
The total cost of the Trujillo project is EUR 2.35bn. It is being coordinated by the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) and involves both private and public funding.
File pic, courtesy Diamond Foundry, shows plasma reactors for making lab grown diamonds.