Intel announces $5.7 billion AI-driven capital investment in Ireland

Intel to upgrade Ireland's Leixlip plant, boosting Europe's most advanced Intel 3 chip production capacity

‌European output to meet growing global demand for AI and high-performance computing, the U.S. chipmaker said on Monday.

Intel said the move would upgrade and maximize capacity at its facility in Leixlip outside ​Dublin that produces Intel 3 silicon wafers, which the company says is ​the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility of its kind in Europe.

⁠It will also link the facility to other factories at the campus, Intel's European ​manufacturing base, as well as advance research and development and retrain staff, Naga Chandrasekaran, ​executive vice president of Intel Foundry, said.

Intel is one of the key multinationals in Ireland's foreign investment-focused economy, having already invested €30 billion in the country since 1989, more than half of which ​was spent between 2019 and 2023 on the fabrication facility that doubled the available capacity ​in Ireland.

The leading-edge manufacturing equipment that Intel has begun to install will help deliver Intel ‌Xeon ⁠6 processors and next-generation Intel Xeon built on the group's Intel 3 manufacturing process, the company said.

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"The demand for servers, the demand for AI is driving a significant increase in the need for Intel 3 wafers," Chandrasekaran told reporters.

Chandrasekaran said the investment ​would add "several hundred" more ​jobs to the ⁠4,900 people Intel employs in Ireland.

The majority of the investment would be made by the end of 2027 and represents ​about 30% of Intel's $17 billion planned capital expenditure for 2026, he ​added.

Ireland ⁠is hugely reliant on the taxes and jobs of foreign multinationals such as Intel. Foreign-owned firms have almost doubled their Irish workforce in the last decade to make up 11% of ⁠the ​entire labour market.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said ​Intel's latest investment was a powerful vote of confidence in Ireland and its position as a location for ​advanced manufacturing.