Siemens plans to invest about one billion Euros in Germany, including about 500 million Euros in a new technology campus in Erlangen. The campus will be the center for technology activities related to the Industrial Metaverse. The investments are part of Siemens AG's global investment strategy. A total of two billion euros will be invested in Europe, the United States, China and Southeast Asia.

Industrial Metaverse under construction

Although the hype surrounding the virtual, photorealistic, physics-based replication of the real world has died down somewhat, many large corporations are still working on the Industrial Metaverse.

Recently, Microsoft, despite previous job cuts, declared its commitment to the industrial metaverse. The US giant is developing tools for data management, digital twins and collaboration. Its best-known applications and platforms include Teams and Azure, as well as the Hololens 2 mixed reality headset.

Siemens builds global hub for industrial Metaverse

Siemens also sees the industrial Metaverse as an important tool for future developments. “Together with our partners, we are developing new digital technologies in the Metaverse and revolutionizing the way we produce in the future – much more efficiently, flexibly and sustainably,” says Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG.

The new campus in Erlangen will serve as a central location for research and development, as well as a production center for the Industrial Metaverse. State-of-the-art technologies and artificial intelligence will be used to create flexible and sustainable high-tech production models.

Tech campus planned digitally

The planned campus in the west of Erlangen, near Nuremberg, will focus on sustainable and future-oriented high-tech production. It will promote related research and development activities and provide space for an ecosystem of business partners and scientific institutions.

Before construction begins, the buildings are planned and simulated digitally. This creates an accurate digital image in which the entire factory layout is optimized and later adapted to the real world in the industrial metaverse.

The campus, which will cover an area of approximately 200,000 square meters, will be built according to the highest sustainability criteria. Together with the city of Erlangen, Siemens plans to use innovative energy infrastructure, green energy supply and energy storage.