Intel has kicked off a massive €5 billion — roughly $5.7 billion — capital investment at its manufacturing campus in Leixlip, just outside Dublin, Ireland. The U.S. chipmaker announced Monday that the funding is designed to expand European production and keep pace with surging worldwide demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing technology.
According to Intel, the investment will push its European manufacturing base to maximum capacity by growing current production levels, advancing research and development efforts, and making better use of existing cleanroom space at the Leixlip facility.
Intel is a major player in Ireland’s economy, which has long relied on attracting foreign investment. The company has poured €30 billion into the country since first setting up operations there in 1989. More than half of that total — invested between 2019 and 2023 — went toward doubling the plant’s capacity so it could produce the company’s most cutting-edge chip technologies.
The chipmaker, which has approximately 4,900 employees in Ireland, said the latest round of spending at Leixlip got underway earlier this year. The funds will be used to upgrade existing fabrication facilities and bring in state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment capable of producing Intel Xeon 6 processors, as well as a next-generation Intel Xeon chip built on the company’s Intel 3 manufacturing process.
Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president of Intel Foundry, emphasized the broader significance of the investment. “We are not just increasing output of critical products, we are ensuring Ireland remains at the forefront of the world’s most advanced manufacturing ecosystems, while strengthening the region’s role in the global technology landscape,” he said in a prepared statement.
