Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road
NBC Bay Area
Ireland’s Big Bet on Silicon Valley
17 minutes Posted Sep 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm.
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Show notes
Ireland is making an aggressive play to strengthen its ties with the West Coast. IDA Ireland—the nation’s foreign investment agency—has launched a trade mission aimed at securing €250 billion (about $300 billion) in new capital and creating 75,000 jobs over the next five years. Already, a West Coast company opens or expands in Ireland every month, with Apple, Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft among the major investors. Scott McGrew sits down with Ivan Houlihan of IDA Ireland to talk about Ireland’s evolving industries, the impact of Brexit, why U.S. tech companies keep choosing Ireland, and how the country is balancing record foreign investment with challenges like housing.