Intel Ireland's parent company - the giant U.S. based Intel microprocessor business - is a quoted company trading on the NASDAQ exchange. Intel decided in 1989 to build its European manufacturing operations in Leixlip, County Kildare, and formed Intel Ireland to be the holding company. The manufacturing plant manufactured its first chip in 1993. To base its European operations in Ireland, Intel received over IRE£87m in grants from IDA Ireland. Intel Ireland also operates a research facility (Intel Shannon) in Shannon, County Clare which employs approximately 250 people.
Intel Ireland has approximately 4,500 employees working at its Leixlip campus and as such it has been a major contributor to the performance of the Irish economy. Construction of the Fab 24 manufacturing plant in the 2000s signified its continuing commitment to developing its Irish operations. In all, Intel's investment in Ireland has been €6 billion .
The Intel Ireland campus at Leixlip is Intel's largest manufacturing plant outside of the United States and consists of two semi-conductor wafer fabrication facilities: Fab 10 Ireland Fab Operations (IFO), and also the Fab 24 manufacturing plant which includes Fab 24-2. IFO is a 200mm wafer facility whilst Fab 24 processes 300mm wafers using 65 nanometer and 90 nanometer process technologies.
In April 2005 the operation announced that the one-billionth microchip had been manufactured by the Leixlip based operation . By August 2010, Intel Fab Operations (IFO) had become the first Intel plant to ship 2 billion die. It is also notable as the only Intel facility to achieve the ISO 14001 safety standard for its management of the local environment Intel Ireland has been located in Leixlip,Co. Kildare since 1989. The company has invested over $7 billion transforming the 360 – acre former stud farm into a manufacturing centre. This site was chosen as it was ideal for the further expansion of the plant.
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“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)