Intel said it has begun a 5 billion euros (US$5.7 billion) investment at its Leixlip campus outside Dublin to expand chipmaking capacity in Ireland as demand rises for AI and high-performance computing.

The project will increase Intel 3 wafer output, connect the facility to other factories on the campus, support research and development, retrain staff, and add several hundred jobs to Intel’s 4,900 employees in Ireland.

Intel said most of the spending will be made by the end of 2027. Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president of Intel Foundry, said that represents about 30% of Intel’s planned $17 billion capital expenditure for 2026.

Leixlip’s Fab 34, which opened in 2023, is Intel’s leading-edge, high-volume manufacturing site in Europe for Intel 4 and Intel 3 chips. Intel said Granite Rapids data center chips are ramping there.

Intel said Fab 34 was designed to support both its own products and customers of Intel Foundry, its contract chip manufacturing business, though it has not publicly named any Intel 3 customers.

🔗 Source: Intel