Intel announced a €5 billion ($5.7 billion) capital investment aimed at expanding and modernizing its Leixlip manufacturing campus outside Dublin, the company said on Monday. The funding is intended to increase European output of Intel 3 silicon wafers - the process node the company describes as the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capability currently operating in Europe.
According to Intel, the program will not only expand capacity at the Leixlip facility but will also create stronger production links between that site and other factories on the same campus, which serves as Intel's European manufacturing hub. The investment will support additional research and development and include staff retraining initiatives, Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president of Intel Foundry, told reporters.
The equipment now being installed is targeted at enabling delivery of Intel Xeon 6 processors and future-generation Intel Xeon chips built on the company's Intel 3 process. Chandrasekaran said demand from servers and artificial intelligence workloads is producing a marked increase in the need for Intel 3 wafers.
Intel currently employs 4,900 people in Ireland. The company said the new investment would create "several hundred" additional roles at the Leixlip campus. Intel also noted that the bulk of the €5 billion will be disbursed by the end of 2027 and that this package represents roughly 30% of the firm's $17 billion planned capital expenditure for 2026.
The announcement underscores Intel's long-standing role in Ireland's foreign investment-driven economy. The company stated it has invested €30 billion in Ireland since 1989, with more than half of that amount spent between 2019 and 2023 on a fabrication facility that doubled Ireland's semiconductor capacity. Irish officials have characterized the latest investment as an endorsement of the country as a location for advanced manufacturing.
Chandrasekaran characterized the expansion as a response to accelerating demand for AI and high-performance computing. Beyond installing leading-edge manufacturing equipment, Intel said the program will link production processes across the Leixlip campus and increase resources devoted to research, development and workforce training.
Intel's expansion plans come against a backdrop in which foreign-owned firms have grown their presence in Ireland's labour market. The company noted that foreign-owned businesses have nearly doubled their Irish workforce in the past decade and now account for about 11% of the total labour market in the country. Irish government officials described Intel's decision to increase investment as a strong vote of confidence in Ireland's capacity for advanced manufacturing.