AMD injects $135 million into Ireland for AI R&D expansion

AMD, a leading semiconductor company, has announced a major $135 million investment in Ireland to drive strategic AI research and development projects.

The investment, supported by the Irish government and IDA Ireland, will result in the creation of up to 290 engineering and research positions.

Simon Coveney, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, welcoming the ambitious plans, said: “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.”

Through this investment, AMD will design innovative high-performance and adaptive computing engines to accelerate data centre infrastructure, networking, 6G communications. On top of this, the new R&D projects will support AMD’s ambition to be a leader in artificial intelligence.

“For nearly three decades, Ireland has been a flagship European R&D centre developing adaptive computing solutions, drawing from a strong and highly-skilled workforce. By further investing and expanding our presence in Dublin and Cork, we are committed to continuing to both drive innovation in Ireland and to support the European semiconductor ecosystem,” said Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communications and Human Resources at AMD.

Prior to being acquired by AMD in 2022, semiconductor company Xilinx partnered with IDA Ireland in 2017 through a $40 million investment to expand its research, development and engineering operations, as well as recruit over 100 new skilled employees. Xilinx also established its first purpose-built site outside of the US back in 1994.

The most recent investment by AMD is expected to further to Ireland’s position as a global technology leader.

“This 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, CEO of IDA Ireland.

Ireland is now home to one of the largest AMD R&D sites in Europe.

A bold move in the race for AI supremacy

AMD’s expansion comes as part of efforts to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI processor market. The unveiling of AMD’s new AI processor, the Instinct MI300 series, was the key highlight at the recent AMD Data Center & AI Technology Premiere Event.

The MI300 series, with the MI300X at its forefront, is specially tailored for generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT.

The new MI300X, a crucial part of the MI300 series, is a state-of-the-art AI processor, capable of running a 40-billion parameter Generative AI model on a single GPU. The chip aims to cater to the growing demands of AI processing in data centres.

The bold move of AMD’s expansion in Ireland not only adds a fresh chapter to the historical relationship between Ireland and the tech giant, but also could help the company scale to new heights in AI and high-performance computing solutions.

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