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Pisa
Nation / PlaceIT

Pisa

Tuscan city; CamGraPhIC graphene photonics pilot plant site, opening 2028.

Last refreshed: 22 April 2026

Key Question

Why is a Cambridge graphene spinout building its first factory in Pisa rather than in the UK?

Timeline for Pisa

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Common Questions
Why is CamGraPhIC building its factory in Pisa?
CamGraPhIC chose Pisa partly because co-founder Dr Marco Romagnoli previously worked at CNIT, Pisa's national telecommunications research consortium. Italy secured €211m in EU-approved state aid; the UK offered no equivalent manufacturing grant.Source: European Commission approval notice
What does the CamGraPhIC Pisa plant make?
The Pisa facility will manufacture graphene-based optical transceivers that consume 80% less energy than silicon equivalents, targeting AI data centres, high-performance computing, automotive, and telecoms markets.Source: CamGraPhIC / EC approval
When does the Pisa CamGraPhIC plant open?
The CamGraPhIC pilot facilities in Pisa and Bergamo are scheduled to open in 2028.Source: CamGraPhIC announcement

Background

Pisa was selected in April 2026 as one of two Italian cities to host pilot manufacturing facilities for CamGraPhIC, a University of Cambridge graphene photonics spinout that secured €211m in Italian state aid approved by the European Commission. The Pisa facility, due to open in 2028, will produce graphene-based optical transceivers that consume 80% less energy than silicon equivalents, targeted at AI data centres, high-performance computing, automotive, telecoms and aerospace.

Pisa is a city of around 90,000 people in Tuscany, north-west Italy, on the River Arno. It is home to the University of Pisa, founded in 1343, and hosts the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, two of Italy's most selective research universities. Pisa is also the location of the CNIT (National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications) research infrastructure, where CamGraPhIC co-founder Dr Marco Romagnoli developed core graphene photonics technology before founding the company alongside Cambridge's Professor Andrea Ferrari.

The selection of Pisa reflects the city's established photonics and telecommunications research ecosystem, centred on CNIT. For the UK, the CamGraPhIC announcement illustrates a persistent structural gap: the IP and academic talent are in Cambridge, but the €211m in manufacturing capital and the resulting jobs are in Tuscany. The pilot facilities in Pisa and Bergamo represent the first industrial-scale deployment of graphene photonic transceivers anywhere in the world.