Xilinx Announces Intention to Invest $50M in Expansion of Electronic Engineering Operations at EMEA Headquarters in Ireland

Xilinx will recruit 60 highly qualified new staff for Dublin and Cork

DUBLIN, Ireland, July 3, 2012 – Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced its intention to invest $50 million in an expansion of its electronics engineering operations at the company’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin and Cork.  The company will recruit 45 senior silicon and electronics engineering staff for its regional headquarters in Dublin and for its engineering centre in Cork.   In addition, a further 15 staff will be hired across a broad range of disciplines supporting the continued growth of Xilinx in Ireland.

Xilinx currently employs over 250 at its EMEA headquarters where it operates a research, development, engineering and IT centre in Dublin along with centralised supply, finance, legal and HR functions.  The development was formally announced in Dublin today by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton T.D., and by Kevin Cooney, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director of Xilinx in Europe.  The new investment is supported by Irish government through IDA Ireland.

Minister Richard Bruton said: “Central to the Government’s plan for jobs and growth is deepening and developing the impact of foreign direct investment here. We must not only seek to attract more investment and jobs from top multinational companies; we must also strive to ensure that more of them are carrying out strategic, high-value activities here based on research and development. Today’s announcement that Xilinx, a leading global semiconductor company, is making a further multimillion euro investment in Ireland with the creation of high-value engineering jobs is very welcome, and is a testament to the staff already here as well to Ireland’s international offering. We in Government are determined to build on announcements like this through the Action Plan for Jobs, and create the jobs we need.”

The new investment and immediate recruitment will support the company’s high level development work for advanced technologies and products where the Irish arm already works in tandem with Xilinx’s Programmable Platforms Group (PPG) at corporate headquarters in the United States.  PPG is a global organization responsible for development and delivery of the company’s industry-leading  ‘All Programmable’ product portfolio, including 7 series FPGAs, Zynq-7000 SoCs, Virtex-7 3D ICs and Vivado Design Suite.

Kevin Cooney, Managing Director of Xilinx in Europe said: “We’re very pleased with this investment, which endorses the quality of advanced engineering and product development work being undertaken by Xilinx Ireland where everyone is an important contributor to the global success of the corporation.  This expansion will provide a range of valuable career development opportunities for experienced engineers, as we continue to fulfil our strategic development responsibilities in Ireland.  At the same time, it’s symbolic of our steadfast commitment to pioneering ‘all programmable’ technology innovation – far beyond our programmable logic roots – aimed at increasing customer value and expanding our reach to a broad base of design engineers and system architects.”

Welcoming the announcement, IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary said: “This strategic and multimillion R&D investment from Xilinx strengthens Ireland’s position as a leading location for cutting edge research in the technology space.  This highly significant investment from a global leading ICT company is a further endorsement of Ireland’s continuing success in attracting FDI.  I would like to offer Kevin Cooney, Managing Director of Xilinx in Europe and the team in Ireland my sincere congratulations for securing this mandate and to offer IDA’s continued support.”

Xilinx is the world’s leading provider of All Programmable technologies and devices, with $2.2B in revenues in fiscal year 2012 and nearly 50 percent market share in the programmable logic device (PLD) market, one of the fastest growing segments of the semiconductor industry.  The company makes very powerful programmable semiconductor microchips and related programming software. These are instrumental in the development of new information and communication technologies throughout the world, with applications ranging from consumer electronics through to mission critical systems. 

The investment by Xilinx will fuel the development of faster and more powerful programmable semiconductor microchips that will be capable of processing even higher volumes of information within electronic systems.  Using these new Xilinx devices will enable developers and manufacturers to create higher performance systems, products and technologies.

Xilinx is a leading multinational investor in Ireland where it first established operations in Dublin in 1995, subsequently building and expanding operations on its own campus.  In 2001 it also invested over €50 million in an expansion of its Dublin facilities as the company’s EMEA headquarters.  In 2005 it established an offshoot of Xilinx Research Labs in Dublin and in 2011 it acquired the Belfast-based telecommunications technology firm Omiino. 

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the world’s leading provider of All Programmable FPGAs, SoCs and 3D ICs. These industry-leading devices are coupled with a next-generation design environment and IP to serve a broad range of customer needs, from programmable logic to programmable systems integration. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.