Siemens is systematically implementing its announced investment offensive of two billion euros. The company intends to invest around one billion euros of this in Germany, thereby strengthening the innovative power of the location. In the presence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the technology group announced today that it will build a new campus for development and high-tech production in Erlangen and invest around 500 million euros in the expansion of research and production capacities. Siemens is thus establishing the location as a global research and development center as well as a nucleus for global technology activities in the industrial metaverse. Overall, Siemens is accelerating its growth, driving innovation and increasing its resilience.

The investments announced today are part of the global investment strategy of around two billion euros presented last month, which will flow primarily into new manufacturing capacities as well as innovation facilities, training centers and other Siemens-owned sites. With these investments, Siemens is underlining its commitment to the Nuremberg metropolitan region.

With around 3,500 employees, the site already has a world-class factory for key industrial automation and digitalization products. Production is already highly automated, with people and robots working side by side. With this investment, Siemens is now laying the foundation for the industrial metaverse, a virtual image of the real world - photorealistic, physics-based and in real time. Through the targeted use of relevant physical data and the application of artificial intelligence, the next generation of high-tech manufacturing is being created, which produces more sustainably and can react flexibly to market changes.

From simulation to the finished production site

The planned campus in the west of Erlangen focuses on sustainable and future-oriented high-tech production, the associated research and development activities and opening up the site to an ecosystem of partners from business and science. To this end, existing facilities are to be converted and the site extended.

The new buildings for research and development, production and logistics will be planned and simulated in the virtual world before the ground-breaking ceremony and then implemented in the real world. This creates a digital twin in the virtual world, in which the entire existing factory layout is optimized with the help of the Industrial Metaverse and later rearranged in the real world. Power electronics components and machine tool controls for mechanical engineering are manufactured in Erlangen - key elements for the German economy and industry.

The investment is another important building block in Siemens' strategy of connecting the real and digital worlds. The company is strengthening the site as a center for digital production concepts, for example through the use of the Industrial Metaverse, and for modern technologies such as industrial 3D printing and innovative power electronics. At the same time, employees are learning how to prepare for and actively shape the digital transformation of the working world through forward-looking work and training concepts (NextWork).

Investment of two billion euros planned worldwide

The plant expansion follows a comprehensive and forward-looking sustainability and energy concept. The approximately 200,000 m² site will be consistently developed into a zero-emissions location that meets the highest sustainability criteria: among other things, an innovative energy infrastructure, green energy supply and storage in partnership with the city of Erlangen and the comprehensive use of sustainable digital building technology solutions from Siemens are planned. The new campus in Erlangen is being realized by Siemens Real Estate, the real estate company of the Siemens Group.

As part of its global investment strategy of around two billion euros, the Group had announced investments in the USA, China and Southeast Asia, among others. Only recently, the company announced the construction of a new company headquarters in Spain with an investment volume of 160 million euros.