QuantumDiamonds Secures €91M ($104.1M USD) to Scale Nitrogen-Vacancy Diamond Semiconductor Inspection Systems

Munich-based hardware developer QuantumDiamonds GmbH (QD) has closed a €91 million ($104.1 million USD) funding cycle to scale the serial production of its quantum-based semiconductor inspection equipment. The transaction architecture combines a €15 million ($17.1 million USD) Series A equity round led by World Fund with €76 million ($87 million USD) in non-dilutive manufacturing grants. This public capital pool was approved at the European Union level under the European Chips Act and is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Free State of Bavaria. With this authorization, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) spin-out becomes the sole early-stage startup awarded dedicated manufacturing subsidies under the Act, positioning it alongside established industrial infrastructure anchors like GlobalFoundries and Carl Zeiss.

[ QuantumDiamonds Capitalization Matrix ] Equity Allocation ──► €15 Million Series A led by World Fund with Bayern Kapital. Sovereign Subsidy ──► €76 Million non-dilutive manufacturing grant via the European Chips Act. Primary Hardware ──► QDm.1 non-destructive 3D quantum magnetic current microscope. Infrastructure Track──► Construction of a €152 Million automated production site in Munich.

The expansion targets an engineering challenge within advanced sub-nanometer node fabs: the inability of conventional optical and X-ray inspection tools to diagnose hidden physical defects buried inside multi-layered 3D chip architectures and advanced packaging configurations. QuantumDiamonds bypasses these limitations by leveraging atomic-scale nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers within synthetic diamond substrates to map localized vector magnetic fields with extreme precision. This methodology acts as a non-destructive nanoscale current microscope, enabling chip foundries to image internal electricity pathways, locate shorts or leakages, and identify structural anomalies in minutes rather than weeks. Given that a solitary percentage point gain in chip yield translates into millions of dollars in weekly operational savings for volume manufacturers, the hardware serves as a critical optimization component for high-density production lines.

The corporate roadmap overseen by CEO Kevin Berghoff and CTO Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier focuses on moving the technology from isolated sample analysis to inline, high-throughput wafer-level inspection. The 70-person firm, which is currently engaged with nine of the world's top ten semiconductor manufacturers, plans to more than double its engineering workforce over the next 12 months to support global field deployments. The capitalization round follows parallel market expansions executed earlier this year, including the establishment of an East Asian hub in Taiwan directed by industry veteran Peter Lemmens, an initial Asian fab deployment at Integrated Service Technology (iST) in Hsinchu, and a state-side installation at Eurofins EAG Laboratories in Sunnyvale, California. Later this year, the company will launch the initial operational wing of its new €152 million production facility in Munich to supply core quantum-grade diamond substrates and inspection machinery directly to global cleanrooms.

The official Series A transaction records, European Chips Act industrial manufacturing criteria, and corporate expansion metrics can be reviewed here, and verified within the institutional venture portfolio filings here.

July 9, 2026