Summary
- The former Dietenhofen toy factory is proposed for a 100MW computing campus.
- Existing 110kV infrastructure and secured network capacity support the development proposal.
- Playmobil digital will offer infrastructure arrangements ranging from powered sites to completed computing capacity.
Horst Brandstätter Group, the owner of Playmobil, plans to redevelop its former toy manufacturing plant in Dietenhofen, Bavaria, as a computing campus designed for an initial capacity of 100MW.
The site already has infrastructure connecting it to a 110kV electricity line, while regional network operator N-ERGIE has reserved the relevant grid capacity. These arrangements provide an important starting point for converting the former factory into a large digital infrastructure development.
The project will be developed through Playmobil digital, a new independent business area within the group. Its commercial offering is expected to range from providing sites with suitable electricity connections to delivering completed computing infrastructure.
External partners may undertake some of the subsequent computing deployment and operation themselves. This creates several possible development models, depending on whether customers require land, prepared infrastructure, or equipment and computing services supplied through the new business.
The proposed 100MW scale has not been separately defined as an amount of operating IT load. It is therefore a campus design target rather than evidence that 100MW of servers or accelerators have been installed or commissioned.
The group is considering further expansion beyond the initial proposal, but no confirmed construction timetable, anchor customer, or final operating configuration has been disclosed.
The Dietenhofen factory closed at the end of June after Playmobil transferred manufacturing abroad. Approximately 350 employees lost their jobs, bringing an end to production at the company’s last remaining German toy manufacturing facility.
Repurposing the industrial site would provide an alternative use for a property whose electricity connection is potentially valuable to a sector increasingly constrained by access to power.
Existing high-voltage infrastructure can shorten parts of the early development process compared with a location requiring an entirely new connection. However, reserved capacity is not the same as an operational data centre supply, and the final installation will still require detailed engineering.
The buildings and internal systems needed for computing are substantially different from those used in toy manufacturing. Data halls require equipment layouts that accommodate rack loading, electrical distribution, air or liquid cooling, fire protection, security, and appropriate maintenance access.
The existing factory’s structural and mechanical suitability has not been established in the available project information. The extent of conversion, replacement construction, or demolition will depend on the design adopted by the developer and its partners.
Electrical capacity must also be divided between the computing equipment and the systems supporting it. Power conversion, cooling, lighting, security, and ancillary plant all contribute to overall demand, so a project’s total electrical rating cannot automatically be treated as usable IT capacity.
The proposed commercial model could introduce additional distinctions. Supplying land and an electricity connection involves different responsibilities from designing and commissioning a fully fitted data centre or providing managed computing services.
Those choices will influence capital requirements, tenant arrangements, maintenance responsibilities, and the eventual allocation of construction and operating risks.
The group says the business will be managed by specialists with more than 25 years of experience in data centres and IT. Their work will include coordinating infrastructure delivery and determining the services made available through the new campus.
Dietenhofen’s conversion would replace a manufacturing operation with a substantially different industrial activity. The eventual employment, energy consumption, construction requirements, and local economic effects cannot yet be determined from the proposed computing capacity.
The former manufacturing premises provide an established industrial setting, but the available information does not specify whether the existing buildings will be retained or replaced. That decision would influence the time needed to prepare floor structures, electrical rooms and equipment installation routes for the proposed campus.
A staged project could supply prepared infrastructure before customers install computing equipment, whereas a fully managed service would leave the developer with greater responsibility for acquiring and operating the servers. The company has deliberately left those commercial configurations open, so no particular arrangement can yet be treated as a committed deployment.
The proposal has yet to identify the stages in which customers would take possession of space or equipment. Until those commitments are made, the stated 100MW should not be used to calculate employment or energy consumption as though the campus were operating at full load.
The development now depends on completing its site design, securing the necessary approvals, and establishing the commercial and technical arrangements under which the first computing capacity could enter service.
