Xilinx announces US$ 40 Million Expansion of Research, Development, and Engineering Operations in Ireland

Xilinx, Inc. today announced its intention to invest $40 million in an initiative to expand its research, development, and engineering operations at the company’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin and Cork. The company will recruit 75 senior silicon and electronics engineering staff for its regional headquarters in Dublin and for its engineering centre in Cork. Additionally 25 new employees will be hired across a broad range of business disciplines supporting the continued growth of Xilinx in Ireland.

Xilinx is the world market leader in all programmable logic technologies – highly advanced and immensely powerful microchips that can be programmed – after they are made – into a diverse range of electronic systems across the ICT industry. The new investment and recruitment will support the company’s high level research, development and engineering work for advanced technologies and products including the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in key strategic markets such as cloud computing, embedded vision, industrial IoT (Internet of Things) and 5G wireless.

The development was formally announced in Dublin today by The Tánaiste (the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland) and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald T.D., and by Kevin Cooney, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Managing Director EMEA, Xilinx Inc. The new investment is supported by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald T.D., said: “This new investment by Xilinx is a great vote of confidence in Ireland and, in particular, in the attractive eco-system we have created for companies in the ICT sector. Xilinx’s expansion and the 100 new, high quality, jobs announced today, are a very valuable contribution to our thriving research capability in these exciting technologies.”

Kevin Cooney, Senior Vice President, Xilinx, said: “Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have a profound impact across a wide range of applications that impact society as a whole. Xilinx is uniquely positioned to accelerate the proliferation of these applications from edge to cloud. This investment by Xilinx in Ireland will fuel advanced product development and research that will enable ever more intelligent and efficient AI development and deployment.”

Mary Buckley, Executive Director of IDA Ireland, said: “Xilinx has been at the forefront of ground-breaking innovation in Ireland for over 20 years now, and its significant investment into the realm of artificial intelligence announced today indicates that this trend is set to continue. Xilinx’s continued commitment to Ireland not only enhances Ireland’s reputation as a pioneering location for high value research in the technology space, it also demonstrates that Ireland has both the necessary business infrastructure and talent pool to attract global tech companies here. I wish the team at Xilinx every success and offer the continued support of IDA Ireland.”