Siemens to invest €1bn in Germany to drive industrial metaverse
Siemens is executing its announced €2 billion investment strategy. Of this amount, the company plans to invest around €1 billion in Germany, thereby boosting the country’s strength.
In the presence of German chancellor Olaf Scholz, the company announced the establishment of its new Technology Campus in Erlangen, Germany, with investments of around €500 million in the expansion of development and manufacturing capacities. As a result, Siemens is establishing the Erlangen location as a global research and development hub and the nucleus of global technology activities for the industrial metaverse. These steps will enable Siemens to accelerate its overall growth and increase its resilience.
The investments are part of the global investment strategy of around €2 billion unveiled last month and focused on new manufacturing capacities, innovation labs, education centres, and further Siemens locations. These investments underscore Siemens’ commitment to the Nuremberg metropolitan region. With around 3,500 employees, the current location is already home to a factory for key products in industrial automation and digitalisation.
Today, production in Erlangen is already highly automated, with humans and robots working side by side. Through this investment, Siemens is now creating a blueprint for the industrial metaverse, a virtual representation of the real world — photorealistic, physics-based, and in real-time. The targeted use of relevant, physical data and the application of artificial intelligence are creating the new generation of high-tech manufacturing, which produces more sustainability and can respond flexibly to market changes.
“This investment is a strong signal for Germany as a location for innovation and production. The leading-edge manufacturing facility being built in Erlangen is a good example of how our economy is moving toward a climate-neutral future — as a strong industrial country with good sustainable jobs,” says German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“Siemens is banking on innovation in Germany and launching the next stage of digitalisation: we’re laying the foundation for the industrial metaverse in the Nuremberg metropolitan region. Here, on the new campus, we’re combining the real and the digital worlds,” says Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens. “Together with partners, we’re developing new digital technologies in the metaverse and revolutionising how we’ll run our production in the future — much more efficiently, flexibly, and sustainably.”
Germany is Siemens’s home market and one of the locations for production, research, development, and employment. The technology company employs about 86,000 people in the country, including around 38,500 in the metropolitan region. Through these investments, the company is once again contributing to the development of the city of Erlangen and the Nuremberg metropolitan region, is committing itself to Bavaria as a high-tech location, and is, ultimately, investing in the future viability and strength of Germany as an industrial location to deliver its products from Germany to the entire world.
As part of its global investment strategy of around €2 billion, Siemens has announced investments in regions such as the U.S., China and Southeast Asia. At the beginning of the week, the company announced its most recent investment project: the construction of new headquarters in Spain with an investment volume of €160 million.