Memory chip company FMC keeps working on semiconductor plant near Magdeburg

Dresden-based startup FMC raises another 100 million euros, expands its management team, and plans its own chip factory in Saxony-Anhalt.

Hafnium oxide is suitable for ferroelectric memory cells.

(Image: FMC)

Jan 22, 2026 at 5:18 pm CET

3 min. read

c't Magazin

By

Christof Windeck

FMC, founded in Dresden in 2016, develops ferroelectric memory chips. FMC has secured another 100 million euros in funding and is hiring two experienced executives. Dr. Raj Jammy will take over as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to drive the development of FeRAM technology into production-ready memory chips named DRAM+ and Cache+.

Norm Armour will work as Chief Operating Officer (COO), among other things, on plans to build an FMC chip factory in the Sülzetal industrial area near Magdeburg.

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So far, there are no memory chips with ferroelectric cells from FMC. FMC's non-volatile, energy-efficient, and fast hafnium oxide-based memory technology can currently only be integrated as a functional block into other chips, i.e., as embedded memory. FMC is cooperating with Globalfoundries on this.

Memory chip factory in Saxony-Anhalt

However, FMC also sees a market for FeRAM chips and had announced plans in the summer of 2025 for its chip factory (Fab) in the High-Tech Park Saxony-Anhalt. These plans are contingent on financing. FMC is applying for funding but also has numerous investment partners, such as Bosch, Merck M.Ventures, and the Belgian research institute Imec.

The Sülzetal section of the High-Tech Park Saxony-Anhalt directly borders the four square kilometer (400 hectares) area “Eulenberg,” which Intel had purchased for the construction of its chip factories, which has since been canceled. The city of Magdeburg is considering repurchasing this area, reported MDR in December 2025.

Qimonda Legacy

FMC's ferroelectric memory technology was developed at TU Dresden, among other places. Key ideas originate from the Nanoelectronic Materials Laboratory (Namlab), in which the DRAM company Qimonda, which failed in 2009, was involved.

FMC has not yet publicly disclosed precise technical specifications for the planned memory chip types, such as the exact size of individual memory cells or the capacity and clock frequency or data transfer rate of the upcoming components. Previously, FMC also referred to its memory cell as FeFET, i.e., ferroelectric field-effect transistor.

FeRAM cell with hafnium oxide by Intel — FeRAM cell with hafnium oxide shown by Intel at IEDM 2021.

(Image: Intel)

Ferroelectric memory chips have existed for decades. So far, no alternatives to DRAM and NAND flash have been able to establish themselves in the largest markets. Individual DRAM chips now hold up to 32 Gigabit (4 GByte), while NAND flash chips with several hundred layers hold up to 2 Terabit (256 GByte). HBM4 memory stacks with thousands of data lines are expected to achieve transfer rates of over 2 TByte/s.

In 2023, the US company Micron described a 32 Gigabit ferroelectric “NVD”AM at the IEEE IEDM 2023 conference. Intel, in turn, presented a FeRAM cell at IEDM 2021.

Several companies are also working on various ReRAM processes, including Weebit Nano. The company Everspin continues to supply MRAM, but still with a maximum of 32 Megabit, primarily for special applications such as space electronics. In 2002, NEC and Toshiba had expected to be able to supply MRAM with 256 Megabit from 2005 onwards.