John Whelan: Dublin has highest density of AI engineers in Europe, but can Ireland capitalise?
Dublin has the top per-capita concentrations of AI engineers Picture: Maxpix
As the EU launches its Invest AI initiative to mobilise €200bn of investment in artificial intelligence, there is much debate as to whether it is too little too late.
Addressing the AI Action Summit in Paris last week, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was adamant the "AI race is far from over". She announced plans to mobilise about €200bn for AI investments amid concerns the region is falling behind the US and China.
French president Emmanuel Macron quickly moved into the limelight by promising an additional €109bn in AI investment in France. It is anticipated Germany will pledge its own funding to drive AI as soon as the national elections are completed at the end of the month.
And whereas these are large sums, they are still chasing the US commitment, where President Donald Trump last month unveiled the Stargate programme, a $500m (€476m) joint venture investment with OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle in AI infrastructure.
This is in addition to the $320bn (€304.9bn) Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft intend to invest this year into artificial intelligence technologies as they race to build out AI infrastructure that will keep them ahead of the European and Chinese competition.
However, whereas Europe has so far under-invested in AI, future developments may depend much more on the available pool of AI specialist engineers. Sequoia, the American venture capital firm headquartered in California, recently released its global survey of AI practitioners, indicating Europe has a standout concentration of dedicated AI engineers relative to the overall engineering talent pool.
Showing a 30% higher number than in the US and three times as high as in China and concluding that with increasing investment, Europe is poised to become a global AI leader.
The Sequoia survey tackles a wide range of issues across the 27 EU member states. But when we zoom in on the details, it is Dublin that stands out for its high density of AI talent, comprising 17% of all software engineers in the area, more than double the average for European cities.
Dublin, followed by Zurich, has the top per-capita concentrations of AI engineers, with further hubs in London, Paris and Berlin.
One factor driving the outlier concentration in Dublin is that the city has proved a friendly base for tech giants. Meta, Google and Microsoft, among the top five companies hiring AI talent globally, have built a considerable presence here.
A decision last November by Microsoft to add a further 550 new Irish-based engineering and R&D roles to pioneer the development of new AI technologies gives a solid example of Ireland’s continued attractiveness.
Speaking at the announcement, Microsoft Ireland’s corporate vice-president, engineering Tara Roth said: “Today, we are delighted to announce a strategic investment in our Irish operations that will strengthen our AI capabilities globally. These new roles span many of Microsoft’s future-focused key product areas and services including security. Security is Microsoft’s top priority, and our Secure Future Initiative (SFI) is the largest cyber security project.
As part of the EU funding plans announced in Paris, €150bn will come from investors and industry partners in what Ms von der Leyen called the “largest public-private partnership in the world for the development of trustworthy AI.”
Individual EU members are also taking action to boost funding by linking up with private-sector investors. This was the approach used by Mr Macron in his pledge of €109bn of private investment in the country’s AI sector in the coming years.
The Irish government has allocated €500,000 in the 2025 budget “to progress AI-related developments”. Whether it will follow the Macron example and appeal to industry and private sector investors to match the Government's investment remains to be seen.
The challenge for the Government is assisting SMEs to build their AI tools and products in the low investor base in Ireland. International data analyst group PitchBook shows private sector venture capital funding for European AI is currently a fraction of what it is in the US.
Its latest release shows private sector venture capital investment in AI funding in Ireland in 2024 was €202m, small by comparison to the €4.2bn in the UK.
Enticing more venture capital to match the Government's half a billion could make a significant difference in not just producing AI engineers, but also supporting them to build their own start-ups in the sector.
