Every year, more and more multinational enterprises decide to invest in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the ORBIS Europe company database, around 20,000 foreign companies have already established business operations in NRW. This equates to one fifth of all multinational enterprises in Germany as a whole. Here you can find an overview of the multinational enterprises in NRW.
 

Outstanding investment projects in NRW

Alongside the many compelling economic and infrastructure-related arguments in favor of North Rhine-Westphalia, NRW stands out on account of its cosmopolitan atmosphere and hospitality. Cultural diversity is a defining feature of NRW. For example, Cologne has a broad-based Chinese infrastructure (medical professionals, service providers, schools etc.). Over the past 150 years of lively economic and cultural exchange with Japan, Europe’s third largest Japanese community has emerged in the city of Düsseldorf. Due to these favorable conditions, foreign investors feel at home in NRW, both culturally and economically.
 

Enapter: Enapter, the hydrogen technology specialist from Thailand, is building a mass production facility for highly efficient hydrogen generators based on anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology in Saerbeck, Germany. In the future, modular systems for the production of green hydrogen will be manufactured and refined at the "Enapter Campus". More than 100,000 electrolyzer units per year are to be produced there from 2022. The aim is to make green hydrogen economically competitive with fossil fuels worldwide and to supply it in the quantities required worldwide.

 

Marelli: Since the end of 2020, the Japanese automotive supplier Marelli has established a new production facility for electric vehicle drives on the Ford factory premises in Cologne. On an area of 18,000 square meters, the company produces 800-volt electric motors for vehicle manufacturers in Germany. Space for future expansion has already been planned. In the first step, Marelli is creating 160 new jobs in Cologne. The group, which was formed in 2019 from the merger of the Japanese company Calsonic Kansei and the Italian company Magneti Marelli, is one of the ten largest independent automotive suppliers in the world.

OrCam Technologies: The Israeli unicorn based in Jerusalem is regarded as a pioneer in the field of artificial vision and is currently building its new European headquarters in Cologne. OrCam Technologies develops camera-based visual aids for blind and visually impaired people. An attachment with a small camera records texts, people and products, analyses them with artificial intelligence and reads them out loud or describes them. The company controls its marketing, distribution and personnel management from North Rhine-Westphalia in order to further establish the product on the European market.
 

Xiaomi: Chinese technology giant Xiaomi launched its first German sales office in Düsseldorf in 2019. In the meantime, the company, which is one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones and smart home devices in the world, has moved into its new German headquarters at the site and opened its first Mi Store in the state capital. Since then, Xiaomi has risen to become Germany's third most important smartphone brand in just one year. Further growth in North Rhine-Westphalia is planned.