Malaga business fabric loses potential synthetic diamond chip factory investment due to lack of electricity

Business

American company Diamond Foundry, part of which Leonardo DiCaprio owns, has chosen Zaragoza for its expansion

Nuria Triguero

Malaga has lost a major investment and the construction of a factory for the manufacture of synthetic diamong wafers for chip production to Zaragoza. The reason behind American company Diamond Foundry's decision to choose the capital of the Aragon region and not Malaga is the shortage of the Costa del Sol's electricity grid.

In February, president of the regional government of Aragon Jorge Azcón announced the one-billion-euro investment Diamond Foundry (partly owned by Leonardo DiCaprio) was going to make in Zaragoza.

According to Azcón, this is the largest investment in Spain's chip industry. The future production plant will employ 300 people and complement the company's existing factory in Trujillo (Cáceres) with the manufacturing of wafers.

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• • Few knew it, but the truth is that Malaga's TechPark had an interest in this ambitious project. Head of the PTA Felipe Romera hoped that Diamond Foundry would ultimately choose Malaga for its 'IMEC effect'. Location next to the company that leads R&D in the field of microelectronics worldwide could generate interesting synergies.

    Romera said that Malaga has lost this opportunity due to insufficient electrical infrastructure. "This company was with us exploring options for setting up in the park. They asked for five megawatts of electrical power to start, but they were only given one, so they went to Zaragoza," Romera said on Canal Málaga on Tuesday night.

    Single-crystal diamond (SCD) is a material that has demonstrated excellent performance in high-voltage, high-temperature and high-frequency applications, surpassing silicon. The future factory in Zaragoza will focus on wafer cutting, smoothing, polishing and inspection. It will be the first foundry for SCD semiconductors in Spain.

    "Energy is the biggest problem we have right now in Malaga. I'm not just talking about the park and all the industrial projects and data centres we're losing in the city. It's also about the homes that we cannot build, despite the existing need. Ultimately, the lack of electrical capacity hinders the city's development and progress," he stated.

    Official data corroborates Romera's opinion. Public energy company Endesa has denied a total of 142 residential, business and all types of projects in the province since January of last year due to a lack of network capacity to supply them with the required power.

    Currently, any company that arrives with a project to set up shop at the PTA "is given, at most, one megawatt" due to saturation of the grid. The case of IMEC has been an exception to the rule, because its design includes its own electrical substation that will guarantee the energy supply it needs.

    However, other major projects are facing uncertainty due to a lack of electrical infrastructure. The most extreme case is the Benbros megadata centre, which would require 150 megawatts and entail a direct cost of 1.2 billion euros, with a projected four-year timeline for its completion.

    According to Romera, the regional government of Andalucía is negotiating with Red Eléctrica to improve the supply network the region will need in the coming years.