Quantum Diamonds Plans €152 Million Investment in Next-Gen Quantum-Based Chip Inspection Facility in Munich, Germany

Quantum Diamonds,  building next-gen testing tools based on quantum sensing to solve one of the semiconductor industry’s hardest problems, led by Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier and Kevin Berghoff, announced a €152 million investment plan to establish the world’s first production facility for advanced chip testing systems.

The Munich facility is a strategic asset for strengthening Europe’s semiconductor position and is expected to receive tens of millions of euros in public funding under the European Chips Act.

Surging demand for high-performance AI chips is driving down yields as chips grow denser, cutting supply, raising costs, and exposing the limits of conventional testing methods.

QuantumDiamonds’ QDM uses diamond-based NV centers to non-destructively map electrical currents inside complex chips with micrometer precision in seconds, crucial for advanced 2.5D and 3D architectures in AI, mobile, and automotive electronics.

After successful pilots with 9 of the world’s top 10 chipmakers, QuantumDiamonds is seeing strong demand, with deployments across Europe and upcoming installations in the US and Taiwan. As Europe produces only ~10% of global chips, the European Chips Act aims to double this to 20% by 2030 to reduce supply-chain and geopolitical risk.

The European Commission said QuantumDiamonds has the potential to become “the next ASML.” Alongside GlobalFoundries’ planned €1.1B investment in Dresden, the move signals Germany’s growing commitment to strengthening Europe’s semiconductor value chain, skills, and global competitiveness.

Bavaria’s economy minister, Hubert Aiwanger, said QuantumDiamonds’ new Munich site strengthens Europe’s microelectronics ecosystem, supporting innovation, high-quality jobs, and technological sovereignty with public backing. Former TSMC failure analysis director Dr. David Su added that the company’s non-destructive current-mapping technology shows strong potential to reveal defects invisible to existing thermal or X-ray methods.

QuantumDiamonds CTO and co-founder Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier said the company’s tools provide layer-specific visibility into current paths inside advanced chip packages without opening them, capabilities that are becoming essential as heterogeneous integration becomes standard.

QuantumDiamonds CEO and co-founder Kevin Berghoff said the investment underscores a commitment to European technology sovereignty, with the company scaling from research to global production in Germany. Early backing from the EIC Accelerator and SPRIN-D enabled the scale-up, while expected Chips Act funding will support the move from pilots to volume manufacturing.