Dunia Innovations Announces €280 Million ($305.2 Million) GigaLab in Berlin to Industrialize AI-Driven Materials Discovery

Deeptech company Dunia Innovations has announced plans to establish GigaLab in Berlin, a new 6,000-square-meter research and development facility with a total budget of €280 million ($305.2 million). The primary objective of the new center is the discovery and development of advanced materials on an industrial scale, aspiring to transform Europe into a global innovation hub. Operations are scheduled to commence in 2028, with the project expected to create more than 200 direct jobs.

Innovation and Objectives of GigaLab

Founded in 2022, Dunia Innovations specializes in creating autonomous infrastructures that integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI), laboratory automation, and digital simulation into a closed-loop system. The first generation of its platform was released in 2023, while the second generation, named IRIS, was launched in May 2025. GigaLab will integrate autonomous experimentation, AI-based design, digital simulation, and industrial material characterization. The platform will serve clients in strategically critical sectors, such as energy storage (batteries), catalysis, semiconductors, clean production, and the substitution of critical raw materials.

The Challenge of Materials Verification

As AI models suggest millions of new potential materials, the research bottleneck has shifted from discovery to verification. According to the company, existing scientific data is fragmented, while simulation alone often fails to predict material behavior under real-world conditions of temperature, pressure, and contamination.

Dr. Alex Hammer, CEO and co-founder of Dunia Innovations, stated that the demand for experimental verification is "exploding," highlighting the need for factories that produce science on an industrial scale. He noted that GigaLab will be the first facility of its kind, removing barriers to cutting-edge technologies.

Industrial Partnerships

To successfully implement GigaLab, Dunia has assembled a consortium of leading companies. Siemens will provide digital twin technology and process simulation, while ABB Robotics will handle laboratory automation. AWS (Amazon Web Services) will offer the necessary cloud infrastructure and large-scale analytics, NVIDIA will support AI model training through high-performance systems (via the Inception program), and ILS will supply parallel testing equipment. Additionally, the pharmaceutical and technology giant Merck has expressed interest in GigaLab’s capabilities regarding next-generation semiconductor materials.

Strategic Importance for Europe

Dr. Dirk Demuth, Head of Corporate Development at Dunia, noted that the company’s advantage lies in the fundamental and simultaneous integration of AI, automation, and industrial workflow design.

Dunia believes that GigaLab holds key strategic importance for European competitiveness, sustainability, and technological sovereignty. For these reasons, it expects the project to attract significant public co-financing, which will complement Venture Capital (VC) funds and industrial partnerships.