The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and Ireland’s Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (FHERIS) today (13th October 2025) announced the successful outcome of the Irish bid to establish an AI Factory Antenna in Ireland (AIF IRL-Antenna).
The AIF IRL-Antenna has been awarded €10m (evenly co-funded by the EU and DFHERIS) to provide a range of AI-focused technical resources and services to the startup/SME, public sector and research ecosystem in Ireland. The bid was also endorsed by DETE (Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment), Enterprise Ireland and Research Ireland.
The AIF IRL-Antenna will bring AI-optimised high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure (including AI Sandbox and Secure Data Environment), technical experts to support development and optimisation of AI solutions, and talent development through training programmes.
This will accelerate Ireland’s twin transition goals – digital and green transformations – across sectors in energy, agriculture, biodiversity, climate, life science, healthcare, smart cities, Space, deeptech and manufacturing.
The three primary objectives of the AIF IRL-Antenna are to
- Support the implementation of Government strategies relating to Advanced Computing, including HPC, AI, Data Spaces and Quantum Computing.
- Scale and accelerate AI innovation across the ecosystem by lowering the entry barrier for AI adoption and development.
- Serve the needs of enterprises (particularly, startups and SMEs) and public sector for AI infrastructure, support and skills.
What are AI Factories?
AI Factories are dynamic ecosystems that will build around AI-optimised supercomputers, offering computing resources and support services to the European industry, as well as to the European scientific users for the development of large AI models to take advantage of AI technology capabilities in the European Union, and for the development of skills and knowledge in the domain of AI.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has selected 13 AI Factory Antennas, now including Ireland, to complement existing AI Factories. This step will strengthen national AI ecosystems and extend access to AI-optimised supercomputing resources across Europe. The establishment of these AI Factory Antennas represents a significant milestone in broadening the impact of the AI Factories initiative.
AIF IRL-Antenna Consortium for Ireland
The AIF IRL-Antenna will be implemented by a national consortium, led by ICHEC (the Irish Centre for High-End Computing, hosted at University of Galway), with CeADAR (Ireland’s national centre for applied AI) as core partner. The consortium includes a network of enterprise accelerators (PorterShed, Dogpatch Labs, RDI Hub, Republic of Works, and Advanced Innovation in Manufacturing) and digital skills networks (Innovation Technology AtlanTec Gateway and Digital Technology Skills) as associated partners.
The AIF IRL-Antenna will link with the AI Factory in France (AI2F) to bring access to one of Europe’s world-class exascale-class supercomputer (Alice Recoque) for AI development and strategic partnership to bridge the AI ecosystems between Ireland and France.
The partnership would cover infrastructure and data sharing, joint talent development, data spaces and federated infrastructures, and strategy/policy co-development. Additionally, the IRL-Antenna will have a second link with the Luxembourg AI Factory focusing on domain-specific AI specialisation across climate, environment, energy, Space, smart mobility and digital health, and access to Meluxina-AI for secure, hyperconnected and scalable computing power.
The AIF IRL-Antenna is also complemented by and will leverage the next national HPC infrastructure (CASPIr), recently announced by the EuroHPC JU and DFHERIS.
James Lawless TD (Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science) says: “The successful AI Factory Antenna bid and Hosting Agreement mark a major leap forward for Ireland’s AI and computing capabilities. These breakthroughs will open doors for researchers, developers, public bodies and institutions across Ireland, providing access to cutting-edge infrastructure, expert support and European AI networks. From climate and health to transport and advanced manufacturing, this will accelerate innovation across every corner of our economy and society.”
Dave Feenan (Director, Digital Technology Skills) says: “The AIF IRL-Antenna represents a landmark opportunity to deepen Ireland’s AI capabilities and strengthen the connection between innovation, infrastructure, and skills. Through this initiative, we can empower individuals and organisations to harness AI responsibly and creatively, ensuring that Ireland’s workforce and enterprises have the digital confidence and capacity to lead in the AI-powered future.”
Professor Jean-Christophe Desplat (Director, ICHEC) says: “IRL-Antenna will deliver a critical component of our national Advanced Computing infrastructure, bringing software platform and services for the accelerated adoption of AI within our SME and startup ecosystem as well as public sector bodies.”
