Ireland becomes Semiconductor hub in Europe

Mark O'Neill August 04, 2026 11:22

In mid-July, Intel announced an investment of five billion euros in its semiconductor centre 20 kilometres west of Dublin. Since 1989, the company has invested more than 30 billion euros in Ireland.

“This represents a commitment to maximise capacity at our Leixlip campus and increase what we can deliver to Intel Foundry customers,” said Naga Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President of Intel Foundry, when making the announcement.

“We are increasing output of critical products like Xeon 6 and next-generation Intel Xeon processors built on Intel 3,” he said. “We are ensuring that Ireland remains at the forefront of the world’s most advanced manufacturing ecosystems.” Its Leixlip centre employs 4,900 people.

Ireland is a major European hub for semiconductor production and research, employing 20,000 people and generating over 15 billion euros annually. In addition to Intel, major players include Analog Devices, AMD, Qualcomm, Infineon, ASML and Applied Materials. A total of 130 companies work in design, manufacturing and testing.

Michael Lohan is CEO of the Industrial Development Authority, responsible for attracting inward investment into the country. He said:
“Intel is one of Ireland’s longest-standing and most strategically important investors. This project demonstrates the value of Ireland’s skilled workforce, innovation ecosystem and stable business environment, while reinforcing the country’s leadership in advanced semiconductors manufacturing and supporting resilient global supply chains.”

Ireland is at the heart of the European Union’s aim to become more self-sufficient in semiconductors. In September 2023, it implemented the European Chips Act Regulation to strengthen its semiconductor ecosystem. It aims to double the EU share of global production of chips to 20 per cent by 2030.

It said: “Chips - also known as semiconductors - are the building block of all electronic products. They play a central role in our modern economies and our daily lives. Chips underpin the digital transformation and are essential to all industries, such as the car industry, communications, data processing, space, defence, smart devices and gaming. The recent global chips shortage has disrupted supply chains, caused product shortages ranging from cars to medical devices, and in some cases even forced factories to close.”

Leixlip is a town of 17,000 people in County Kildare, 20 kilometres west of Ireland’s capital. In addition to Intel, it hosts hi-tech companies such as Exyte, Hewlett Packard and MGS Manufacturing Group.

This flourishing hi-tech sector is one factor that has transformed Ireland from one of the poorest countries in the EU in the 1970s to its second highest GDP per capita in 2025, behind Luxembourg and ahead of the Netherlands and Denmark.

Other factors are factories by major pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, financial services and investment by U.S. multinationals attracted a corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent, the lowest in the EU. In 2021, under pressure from Brussels, the government raised this to 15 per cent. Last year it collected 33 billion euros in taxes from corporations.

Danny McCoy, CEO of the Irish Business & Employers Confederation, said that, historically, Dublin had been the second city of the British Empire. “It was an administrative centre. The industrial revolution passed us by. We were an agrarian society, with no history of workers.”

“The economic success of recent years is due to our services, banks, technologies, corporate headquarters and white-collar jobs. This service sector existed before,” he said.

Dublin has been transformed. The Grand Canal Docks have been renamed Silicon Docks, because they are home to the European headquarters of Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple and other American giants.

The average monthly salary in Dublin is 3,700 euros, more than the 3,400 in Paris, while the rent for a single-room apartment is 2,100 euros a month, nearly double that of Paris.

Since 2010, Dublin’s population has grown six per cent year, with 22 per cent of residents not born in Ireland.

McCoy said that the city was not prepared for such rapid growth. “Our infrastructure was not designed for so large a number of people. Our schools and hospitals are under pressure. We have a serious crisis of housing. This is the price of success.”

But the talk of the country last week was not the Intel investment nor the rise of 3.9 per cent in GDP in the second quarter but the victory of a western county in the national final of Gaelic football. With hurling, it is one of two traditional Irish sports.

In front of 82,000 fans at Croke Park in Dublin on July 26, Co Mayo defeated the hot favourite Co Kerry 1-20 to 1-17 – three points -- to win their first title for 75 years and end the “Mayo Curse”.

Legend has it that, when the previous Mayo champions in 1951 were going home, they passed a funeral procession. The priest leading it considered the players not properly respectful and cursed them.

After that, the Mayo team played in 11 finals but lost all of them. Only after the last member of the 1951 team passed away in April 2023, aged 93, was the county able to win again.

Mayo has a population of only 152,000. On the Atlantic coast, it was historically poor and rural, forcing thousands to emigrate around the world. No surprise, then, that the winning team received congratulations from members of the Mayo diaspora – including ex-President Jo Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and musicians Noel and Liam Gallagher.

For a week, at least, semiconductors had to take second place to Gaelic football and the ending of the ‘curse’.

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.