Data centre demand drives NI manufacturing boom
Demand for data centre equipment appears to be driving a boom in Northern Ireland manufacturing, new official figures suggest.
NI manufacturing grew at an annual rate of 9% in the second quarter of this year, compared to a UK average of just 1.2%.
NI has been outperforming the UK average since the start of last year.
The growth in NI has been concentrated in “computer, electronic, electrical, and optical products” which grew at an annual rate of almost 28% in the most recent quarter.
That subsector includes a cluster of local companies which make power equipment for data centres.
Data centres are effectively warehouses full of computer servers which are central to the operations of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Companies like Microsoft, Google and OpenAI have been investing billions of pounds in centres like these as they compete to create the fastest and most useful AI services.
These facilities require massive, uninterrupted power supply.
Several local companies specialise in the design and manufacture of these power systems.
AI jobs across the island of Ireland
Last month the managing director of one of these firmstold the BBC they were experiencing “astronomical” demand for their products.
Michael Beagan runs TES in Ballykelly which was recently taken over by a large French company.
“When we started on this site four years ago there was basically a team of two. We’re now at about 175 employees and growing,” he said.
The strong manufacturing performance may also reflect data centre demand for the products made at the Seagate factory in Londonderry
It makes hard disc drives which AI companies need to store the massive amounts of data which underpin their services.
Earlier this week the Republic of Ireland’s Central Bank said AI and data centre equipment is accounting of an increasingly large share of investment spending in the country.
It said the value of imports of “machinery and equipment” had risen at an annual rate of 56% in the second quarter of this year.
It added that the pattern of imports was “consistent with continued AI and data centre investment and the imports of the hardware typically used in them.”
The emerging paradox of Northern Ireland’s AI story
Northern Ireland
Manufacturing
Economic growth
NI economy
Artificial intelligence
