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Ireland\u2019s economic footprint in the United States is growing again.<\/p>\n
Irish companies are planning at least $6.1 billion in new investments<\/a> in the U.S., expanding across industries including technology, manufacturing, and food and nutrition. The spending push, unfolding as the U.S. ramps up infrastructure for artificial intelligence and other energy-intensive technologies, reflects a deepening economic relationship between the two countries. The move was also touted in advance of the annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day visit by Miche\u00e1l Martin, Ireland\u2019s taoiseach, or prime minister, to the White House, after calls by President Trump<\/a> for foreign trading partners to invest in the United States. <\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s longstanding ties to the United States\u2014and the millions of Americans who claim Irish heritage\u2014are a regular feature of mid-March political rhetoric. While Trump has pointed to Irish business investment<\/a> and the number of U.S. presidents with Irish ancestry, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a St. Patrick\u2019s Day speech to highlight Ireland\u2019s role in labor organizing<\/a> and anti-colonial solidarity movements.<\/p>\n But Ireland\u2019s economic ties to the United States extend well beyond political symbolism. Ireland is already the fifth-largest source of foreign direct investment in the country, with the top 10 Irish companies employing more than 125,000 people in the United States, according to Enterprise Ireland<\/a>, the Irish government\u2019s business development arm.<\/p>\n \u201cThat speaks to their level of confidence in the U.S. market and the size of the growth opportunity,\u201d says Enterprise Ireland CEO Jenny\u00a0Melia. In\u00a0recent years, Irish businesses have been investing\u00a0in particular in\u00a0the U.S. data center boom, drawing on decades of relationships with major American tech firms that run European operations from Ireland.\u00a0The Emerald Isle has also developed\u00a0experience hosting data centers and\u00a0managing their\u00a0effect\u00a0on the electrical grid\u00a0and\u00a0other resources\u2014but also faces increased opposition to further\u00a0build-outs\u00a0at home due to those very\u00a0impacts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIrish companies have really honed and perfected their skillset and talent in those areas over the last 20 [to] 30 years, and in fact, have led out on data center builds right across Ireland and right across Europe,\u201d Melia says. <\/p>\n Now, they\u2019re increasingly turning their eyes to the United States, where Irish companies and a growing number of American employees are working to produce a variety of infrastructure, tools, and materials to fuel the growth in data centers, driven in part by the rush of investment into artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really supply and demand,\u201d says David Maher, senior vice president at Limerick-based H&MV Engineering<\/a>. \u201cAnd it\u2019s providing really good opportunity at the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n H&MV builds infrastructure that connects big energy consumers like data centers, as well as generating facilities like solar power sites, to utilities and the broader electrical grid. It\u2019s seen revenue rise to more than $1 billion per year, and in January announced the acquisition<\/a> of Amarillo, Texas-based Cooke Power Services. <\/p>\n Maher says demand for the company\u2019s expertise will extend beyond the immediate data center boom as utilities continue deploying technologies like renewables and battery storage. That outlook is echoed by other Irish companies expanding into the United States, who also point to the need to continually revamp existing data centers to support new technology and improve efficiency. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see this as a\u00a0short-term\u00a0industry\u2014it\u2019s only just starting,\u201d says Orla Good, commercial director at\u00a0Portwest<\/a>, a Westport, Ireland-based company\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0among the leading makers of protective workwear. \u201cOnce, I\u2019m sure, the capacity has been built, there will be retrofitting on some of the older data centers in order to catch them up technology-wise with the newer ones.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Portwest operates a distribution center in Kentucky, managing logistics around gear like innovative lightweight arc-protection wear that can safeguard workers from electricity while reducing heat risk. The company invested $4.4 million in the 71,000-square-foot site and plans to open a second site in Nevada this year, and it anticipates U.S. headcount to rise from just over 100 today to more than 200 within the next two years.<\/p>\n Irish companies like Portwest didn\u2019t arrive at their technical expertise by happenstance, Good says. <\/p>\n \u201cIreland is very strong historically on adapting to new ways of working, innovative in the form of creative ideas and problem solving, and we have a strong heritage of STEM in our education system,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n And that culture is a good fit for collaboration with American businesses, says Enterprise Ireland’s Melia. <\/p>\n \u201cI often say we love to find a problem and then we love to solve it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think that mixes really well with the go-and-get-up attitude that we see in the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n Other Ireland-based companies are also contributing to the infrastructure needed to get new data centers up and running\u2014and existing ones revamped\u2014while employing increasing numbers of workers in the United States. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a huge volume of work coming down the road,\u201d says J.J. O\u2019Hara, CEO of Irish construction innovation center Future Cast<\/a>. \u201cEvery one of the data centers that was built 10 years or older, is going to have to be retrofitted.\u201d <\/p>\n Electrical equipment maker CEL Critical Power in 2025 invested more than $40 million in a new 400,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Williamsburg, Virginia, and building material giant Kingspan expanded sites in multiple states in 2025, with additional expansions targeted for 2026. The company employs about 2,700 people across 17 states. <\/p>\n Irish companies are also delivering technologies that can make building and operating data centers and other structures more efficient. Ireland\u2019s Midland Steel last year signed an exclusive deal with Nucor, the largest U.S. steel producer, to license its FasterFix rebar technology<\/a>, which can make build times dramatically faster and work with Nucor\u2019s existing steel recycling systems to cut waste. <\/p>\n