Dresden-based semiconductor innovator FMC has raised €100 million to reduce the energy demand of AI data centres with its sustainable and cost-efficient memory chip – ranking among the largest raise of its kind in the semiconductor industry.
The €77 million in equity comes from FMC’s oversubscribed Series C financing round, led by HV Capital and the DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), along with Vsquared Ventures. Returning investors include eCAPITAL, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide Venture Capital, M Ventures (Merck), and Verve Ventures. An additional €23 million has been sourced through public funds, including contributions from the IPCEI ME/CT programme and the European Innovation Council (EIC).
Thomas Rückes, CEO of FMC, said: “We are working on the next generation of memory chips and system solutions that are not only more sustainable and energy efficient, but also faster and less expensive than the current industry standard. While bandwidth has so far been the dominant metric of AI compute, energy efficiency is now becoming the key factor for the next generation of AI.”
This €100 million raise by the Dresden-based memory-chip company can be viewed alongside several other 2025 European semiconductor and AI-infrastructure rounds reported by EU-Startups.
Q.ANT (Stuttgart, Germany) secured €62 million in July 2025 to advance its energy-efficient photonic processors for AI and HPC workloads. In France, Arago raised €22.1 million (Seed, July 2025) to develop its light-powered AI chip built to cut compute-related energy demand. Meanwhile, Scintil Photonics (Grenoble, France) closed a €50 million Series B in September 2025 to scale its integrated photonics platform designed for AI factories.
Together, these rounds represent approximately €134 million of capital flowing into Europe’s semiconductor and AI-hardware ecosystem this year.
Against this backdrop, the €100 million round stands out as one of the larger 2025 investments in advanced chip technologies, particularly within the memory-focused segment, contributing further to Europe’s growing capacity in DeepTech hardware.
“Memory chips are the main bottleneck in the AI stack. FMC’s DRAM+ and 3D CACHE+ technology addresses precisely this issue: Faster and more energy efficient than established products. This lays the foundation for scaling up AI data centres and AI edge applications. Securing an equity financing of this magnitude emphasizes the significance of our technology, and we are grateful to have earned the trust of leading deep-tech investors for our vision,” added Rückes.
Founded in 2016, FMC is a leading semiconductor and memory chip company. Based on the thin-film material hafnium oxide, the company has created a new class of memory cells with its DRAM+ chip – allegedly more sustainable, faster, and cost-efficient.
Thanks to its low power consumption, the technology reduces the energy demand of AI data centres, laying the foundation for their scale-up in Europe and worldwide.
FMC is now a fabless company, meaning it designs, develops, and markets its own products while outsourcing production to contract manufacturers (chip foundries).
Fabian Gruner, Partner at HV Capital, said: “FMC’s highly innovative memory chip technology is unique and has the potential redefine global industry standards. We are proud to back its commercialisation through our commitment.”
Even with the planned expansions of energy capacity, AI data centers are expected to consume a very large share of global energy production in the future.
FMC’s innovative persistent DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ memory technologies and systems can reportedly reduce this energy consumption by minimising and optimising the data transfers between compute hierarchies, which account for a substantial portion of energy use.
When FMC’s technologies replace conventional memory, system efficiency for high-performance databases and processing speed for energy-efficient AI applications could improve by more than 100%.
This is possible because persistent DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ technologies replace volatile memory, eliminating time-consuming data transfers between volatile, fast, and slower non-volatile storage.
Dr Torsten Löffler, Investment Director at the DTCF, said: “By tackling the growing energy needs of AI infrastructure, FMC’s memory technology enables more efficient computing. We are convinced by its technological excellence made in Germany and its strategic role in strengthening Europe’s semiconductor sovereignty.”
Memory chips have become a strategically crucial technology that is currently being dominated exclusively by South Korea, the U.S., and Taiwan, with China rapidly catching up.
So far, Europe has not had a significant presence in this critical semiconductor segment. Emerging in Silicon Saxony, FMC looks to be that credible player with the ambition to close this strategic gap from within Europe.
Paul-Josef Patt, Managing Partner at eCAPITAL, said: “From day one, we have been supporting FMC on its impressive growth journey. Pilot results confirm design wins with leading OEMs, and the roadmap for production and commercialisation is in place. FMC demonstrates that DeepTech from Europe can deliver and has the potential to take the lead in the memory chips of the future.”
The fresh funding will accelerate the commercialisation of the company’s DRAM+ and 3D CHACHE+ memory chips and system solutions and expand its global presence.
The company was also included in the comprehensive list of “59 Top Semiconductor Startups and Companies in Germany” from 2021.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/11/germanys-fmc-lands-e100-million-as-europe-pushes-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-and-asian-memory-suppliers/
