Half -ladder industry: billion -dollar project: Chip ABRIK at Magdeburg planned

A new chip factory near Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt) is planned for the production of memory chips for European industry. The aim of the project is to build European production capacities and reduce the dependence on abroad, the Dresden company said FMC. “With our project, we want to strengthen the European technology sovereignty and resilience in system -critical memory chips,” said Managing Director Thomas Rückes. In a next step, a declaration of intent with the state of Saxony-Anhalt is to be signed.

It is a multi-billionist project, said Saxony-Anhalt’s Economic Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) of the German Press Agency. After Intel has withdrawn, the conversations with FMC were an important plan B. Last year, US chip manufacturer Intel said that the original plans for building up several chip factories in Magdeburg first. Around 30 billion euros should be invested at the Saxony-Anhalt site.

Minister of Economics: “Intel is not off the table”

“Intel is not off the table,” emphasized Schulze. In the large high-tech park planned at Magdeburg, other companies are supposed to settle. While Intel bought an area with a size of 400 hectares, the FMC project is around 100 hectares. “Now it is important that the financing is clarified,” said Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister of Economic Affairs. Together with the company, talks with the federal government and the EU are now planned for possible financing.

FMC (Ferroelectric Memory Company) was founded in 2016 and was created from the area of the TU Dresden. According to its own statements, the company has developed memory cells that have extremely low power consumption and thus reduce the energy requirements of AI data centers. Among other things, the companies Bosch, Air Liquide, Merck and other international investors are behind FMC. As a company spokesman said, it would be the first FMC chip factory in Germany. The chips in other factories are currently being produced.