German Toy Maker Playmobil's Parent Company Announces Plan to Convert Former Factory into 100MW AI Data Center Campus

According to reports by German technology media heise online and WirtschaftsWoche, Horst Brandstätter Group, the parent company of the well-known toy brand Playmobil, announced on October 28, 2026, that it plans to build a high-performance computing campus on the grounds of its former factory in Dietenhofen, Germany. The campus is designed with a capacity of 100 megawatts and has potential for further expansion.

Horst Brandstätter Group stated that the company will provide the infrastructure, while partners can manage their respective applications independently. The offerings range from simply providing space with corresponding network connections to delivering finished computing power. This business segment is named "Playmobil digital" as a new, independent branch within the corporate group. The team responsible for the construction and operation of the campus has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of data centers and IT.

The Dietenhofen site was previously the only production plant in Germany where Playmobil manufactured toys. It was closed at the end of June this year, with production relocated abroad, resulting in the loss of 350 jobs. Matthias Fauser, a board member of Horst Brandstätter Group, said that the company wants to enable one of the most important infrastructures of the digital future where Playmobil was produced for decades.

Regarding power supply, the site already has a connection to a 110-kilovolt transmission line, and the grid operator N-ERGIE in Nuremberg has confirmed the necessary network capacities. However, this allocation of power has a direct impact on the neighborhood: according to BR, a planned Anthropic data center in nearby Hirschneuses currently lacks the necessary network capacity because the available power has been committed to the Playmobil site.