It’s What’s Inside that Counts at Intel Ireland

Intel Ireland's Leixlip campus, located in County Kildare, began operations in 1989. Since then, Intel has invested $15 billion in turning the 360-acre former stud farm into one of the most technologically advanced manufacturing locations in Europe. This is the largest private investment ever made in the history of the Irish State. Today, more than 4,500 people work at the campus in Leixlip.

The Leixlip campus is home to a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility which, in recent years, has undergone an upgrade project that has enabled the site to be a key location for production of Intel’s 14nm process technology. The leading edge silicon microprocessors which are manufactured in Ireland are at the heart of a variety of platforms and technology advancements which are essential to the way we learn, live, and work today.

The Irish fab operations have consistently played a central role within Intel’s global manufacturing network and we have also leveraged our advanced manufacturing capability and world class infrastructure to develop new competencies for Intel in the areas of research and design.

In September 2016 Intel announced the acquisition of Movidius, a company that is transforming the future of computer vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate innovation for the next generation of smart and connected devices. Movidius is at the forefront of a new era of computing that enables new levels of intelligence for edge devices (cameras, drone, robots, etc.) by delivering low-power, high-performance SoC platforms in the area of computer vision.

Movidius was co-founded in Dublin in 2005 by David Moloney and Seán Mitchell and acquired by Intel in 2016. This acquisition brought with it algorithms tuned for deep learning inference, depth processing, navigation and mapping, and natural interactions, as well as broad expertise in embedded computer vision and machine intelligence. The Movidius Engineering team operates out of three primary locations in Ireland, Romania and North America. The Ireland team are based at the Leixlip campus and specialise in leading edge computer vision IP and hardware development.

The work that we undertake at the Leixlip campus is world class and unique in terms of its scale and complexity and has had a very significant impact on both the local and national economy in many ways. For example, Intel Ireland contributes €921 million each year to the Irish economy and supports 7,550 full time equivalent jobs in the economy which are in addition to the 4,900 people working for Intel. We support 756 Irish suppliers with who we spend €187 million every year. In the past 3 years we have donated more than €3 million to communities across Ireland and every year we contribute almost €1 million to education initiatives.