The IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, also known as Silicon Valley of Germany, is one of the most important locations of the IT and high-tech industry worldwide. It is concentrated in the

Rhine-Main The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'', ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'' or ''FrankfurtRheinMain'', abbreviated FRM), is the third-l ...

and

Rhine-Neckar The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (, ), often referred to as the Rhein-Neckar Triangle, is a polycentric Metropolitan regions in Germany, metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the nor ...

metropolitan regions. The IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar is the largest IT cluster in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. 50 percent of the worldwide revenue of the hundred largest European software companies is generated by companies in this region. The Rhine-Main-Neckar region also has one of the most important

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

, fintech,

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

and

consulting A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

clusters in Europe. In addition to universities such as Technische Universität Darmstadt and University of Frankfurt and research institutions such as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and ATHENE, software companies such as SAP SE, Software AG and T-Systems also have their headquarters in the region.

Importance in the world

In 2010, the French venture capital firm Truffle Capital published in its study "Truffle 100 European Clusters" that the Rhine-Main-Neckar region accounts for 50 percent of the worldwide revenue of the hundred largest European software providers. It compared the Rhine-Main-Neckar region as an IT cluster with Silicon Valley as the "Silicon Valley of Europe". According to this study, the Rhine-Main-Neckar IT cluster combined more than 12.5 billion euros in software-related sales in 2009. The next largest European IT cluster was

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

with 2.4 billion euros. In a 2009 study, the region was compared with IT clusters such as Oulu (Finland),

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

(India) and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. In contrast to the Silicon Valley, the main business area of the companies in the region is

enterprise software Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than its individual users. Enterprise software is an integral part of a computer-based information ...

.Elbert, Ralf & Müller, Fabian & Persch, D.. (2009). Cluster-Potenzial der Region Südhessen/Rhein Main Neckar zur Entwicklung eines Clusters der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie. According to a study by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, Darmstadt has the best cluster among all EU regions in the emerging industries. Emerging industries means future technologies that the EU attaches particular importance to for growth in Europe. Darmstadt also has the best

cluster in Europe. The

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

region, which partly belongs to the Rhine-Main-Neckar region, ranks second among the biopharmaceutical clusters. The region is one of the most important locations for IT security research worldwide. Darmstadt has the renowned ATHENE, the national center for research in security and privacy in Germany and the largest research institute for IT security in Europe. According to an analysis by Startup Genome, a company specialising in the analysis of startup ecosystems, the

region is also home to one of the world's most important startup ecosystems in the field of IT security and fintech.

Importance in Germany

The IT cluster Rhein-Main-Neckar is part of the ''Spitzencluster'' Software-Cluster, which also includes other regions. In January 2010, the Software-Cluster won the German government's ''Spitzencluster'' competition, the equivalence to the German Universities Excellence Initiative for clusters. The cluster's goal is to enable the transformation of companies into digital companies. This cluster consists of the centers

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, Kaiserslautern,

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

and

Walldorf Walldorf (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Walldoaf'') is a town in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. In the eighteenth century, Walldorf was the birthplace of John J ...

. Since 2017, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has supported the cooperation between the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Technische Universität Darmstadt with companies and research institutions from

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. In a competition, the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media awarded Darmstadt the title of ''Digital City'' in 2017. This victory is intended to turn Darmstadt into a digital model city. In 2016, the Federal Ministry of Finance decided to make the region around Darmstadt the pre-eminent hub for the digital transformation of the economy. According to a study by the auditing firm

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

from 2018, 24% of all Fintechs in Germany have settled in the Rhine-Main-Neckar region, with

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

being considered the centre. This makes the Rhine-Main-Neckar region one of the most important locations for the fintech industry in Germany. According to a study from 2013, the Rhine-Main region has the best cluster in Germany in the financial and consulting industry. According to the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) is one of the best universities in Germany in terms of research in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and the University of Mainz in the

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s. According to the report of the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2018, in the period under review from 2014 to 2016 the TU Darmstadt received the highest number of competitive grants in the field of computer science and the University of Mainz the highest number of competitive grants in the natural sciences. In a competitive selection process, the DFG selects the best research projects from researchers at universities and research institutes and finances them. The ranking is thus regarded as an indicator of the quality of research. In a nationwide competition by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the Technische Universität Darmstadt was honoured as founding university.{{Cite web, url=https://www.exist.de/DE/Programm/Exist-Gruendungskultur/EXIST-Karte-Gruenderhochschulen/inhalt.html, title=EXIST-Gründerhochschulen, website=www.exist.de, language=de, access-date=2019-10-06

Resident universities

* Technische Universität Darmstadt * University of Frankfurt * University of Mannheim * University of Mainz * University of Applied Sciences Mainz * Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences * Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences *

RheinMain University of Applied Sciences The RheinMain University of Applied Sciences (German language, German: ''Hochschule RheinMain''), formerly University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden (German language, German: ''Fachhochschule Wiesbaden''), is a university located in Wiesbaden, ...

* Technische Universität Kaiserslautern * University of Applied Sciences Worms The

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

is not located directly in the IT-Cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, but is adjacent to it and has nevertheless contributed to its development.

Resident companies (selection)

* SAP * Software AG * DE-CIX *

Merck Group The Merck Group, branded and commonly known as Merck, is a German Multinational corporation, multinational science and technology company headquartered in Darmstadt, with about 60,000 employees and a presence in 66 countries. The group include ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Germany *

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

Germany *

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Germany * Rakuten Kobo Inc. Germany * Nemetschek *

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

* Accenture *

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and d ...

* Computer Sciences Corporation * Crytek * Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe * Isra Vision * Kalypso Media * MAXON * Schott AG * Singulus Technologies * T-Systems * Terma A/S * TrekStor * United Internet

Resident research institutes (selection)

* German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence * GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research * European Space Operations Centre * European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites * ATHENE * Center for IT Security, Privacy and Accountability

References