Intel to invest €5 billion in Leixlip campus creating hundreds of new jobs

Reuters

Intel has begun a €5 billion capital investment to upgrade its Leixlip campus, taking on hundreds more to its workforce there and expanding its European output to meet growing global demand for AI and high-performance computing, the US chipmaker said on Monday.

Intel said the move would upgrade and maximise capacity at its facility in Leixlip Co Kildare 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.

"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 represent about 30% of Intel's 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.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Intel's latest investment was a powerful vote of confidence in Ireland and its position as a location for advanced manufacturing. - Reuters