AMD has announced plans for continued growth in Ireland through an investment of up to US$135 million over four years. Accordingly, the investment will fund several strategic R&D projects. Specifically, they funding will involve adding up to 290 highly skilled engineering and research positions, as well as a broad range of additional support roles.

Ireland’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney TD, and Ruth Cotter, senior vice president, Marketing, Communications and Human Resources at AMD recently announced the new investments. Moreover, the Irish government through IDA Ireland has full backing for the new investment.

“I warmly welcome the ambitious plans of AMD to expand their advanced R&D and engineering operations in Ireland. This significant investment will not only bolster our thriving technology sector but also create long-term career opportunities for both highly experienced professionals and new graduates from engineering disciplines,” said Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

In addition, Coveney said, “The company’s (AMD) plans to add up to 290 new positions and its funding of strategically important R&D projects demonstrate its confidence in Ireland’s supportive enterprise environment and infrastructure.”

Strengthens Presence in Ireland

Meanwhile, Ruth Cotter, senior vice president, Marketing, Communications and Human Resources at AMD, said, “From the cloud and PCs to communications and intelligent end points, AMD’s high-performance and adaptive computing solutions play an increasingly larger role in shaping the future of computing today. For nearly three decades, Ireland has been a flagship European R&D center developing adaptive computing solutions, drawing from a strong and highly-skilled workforce.”

Moreover, Cotter said further investing and expanding AMD’s presence in Dublin and Cork will mean continuing to both drive innovation in Ireland and to support the European semiconductor ecosystem. “Through this investment, our R&D teams in Ireland will design innovative high-performance and adaptive computing engines to accelerate data centre, networking, 6G communications and embedded solutions while taking a leadership position on artificial intelligence,” said Cotter.

Prior to the acquisition of Xilinx by AMD in 2022, Xilinx partnered with IDA Ireland on a number of occasions to advance semiconductor innovation in Ireland. Most recently, in 2017, Xilinx announced a $40 million investment to expand its research, development and engineering operations, as well as recruit over 100 new skilled employees.

Huge AMD R&D Site

“This investment will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible while contributing further to Ireland’s position as a global technology leader. This expansion further strengthens the company’s presence in Ireland as a leading center of semiconductor innovation and puts Ireland at the heart of AMD’s European research and engineering operations. IDA Ireland has been proud to support AMD and previously Xilinx for nearly three decades and is committed to supporting investments of scale that impact positively on Europe’s semiconductor industry,” said Michael Lohan, chief executive officer, IDA Ireland.

Initially, the Irish site built in 1994 was the first purpose-built Xilinx site outside the United  States. Thereafter, its operations a year later with a focus on manufacturing, operations support, engineering and administration services. Since the acquisition of Xilinx, Ireland is now home to one of the largest AMD R&D sites in Europe with a strong record of delivering products with significant commercial success, such as the AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC semiconductor product family.