€2.4 billion investment in Kildare Innovation Campus
Kildare Innovation Campus (KIC), located in a parkland setting on 184 acres between Celbridge and Leixlip, has announced a €2.4 billion investment in the further development of the site. This will create 3,000 new high tech jobs over three phases by the end of 2030. KIC will be Ireland’s only carbon neutral campus, committed to using indigenous power generated from renewable sources.
KIC is already home to MGS Ireland, Mercury, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Cully Automation, DXC Technology and Nikon Precision Europe. Together these companies currently employ over 1000 people on the site already. By the end of next year (2025) Phase 1 of the new expansion of the Campus will increase the numbers employed on the site by a further 1,000. An additional 2,000 jobs are expected to be fully in place by the end of 2030 when the entire campus is fully realised. As outlined in a recent Grant Thornton Report, the total economic output from the expanded campus when complete will be worth €5 billion to the Irish economy.
A purpose built innovation hub is being developed currently – ‘The Hub at KIC’. The Hub will be a dedicated landing space for both high potential deep tech scale up’s in Ireland and foreign direct investment. This new state-of-the-art space will be a complete deep retro-fit within the existing campus buildings.
Planning permission was approved for the expansion of the campus in January this year. Since then, all but one of the new buildings have been pre-let to leading global blue chip technology companies. Preparatory works are already underway to develop the new buildings as well as the erection of a new cycle and pedestrian bridge linking Celbridge and Leixlip towns over the M6 motorway.
KIC CEO Allan Shine said: “KIC will be Europe’s most advanced carbon neutral technology and innovation campus and will be unique in terms of scale, services and flexibility welcoming innovative companies looking to scale their operations in areas such as Deep Tech, Photonics, Biotech, Machine Learning, Robotics as well as Advanced Manufacturing.”
Allan Shine is the former CEO of Kildare Chamber and has been committed for well over a decade to the development of Kildare as the leading business region in Ireland. Allan Shine joined the KIC Team in February to lead the significant expansion of the Campus.
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Pictured at the announcement were (left to right): Iwan Iwanowa, Principal Investor at KIC; Allan Shine, CEO of KIC; and Toby Cooper, Principal Investor at KIC.
