Minister Simon Coveney, TD (centre), Mary Buckley from IDA Ireland and the Qualcomm team in Cork.

Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of wireless tech company Qualcomm, is expanding its R&D facility in Cork city with a $127m investment.

This investment aims to advance the skills capability of this subsidiary and address market challenges for a broad range of industries. The project will see hardware and software research teams work at the Penrose Dock facility.

The expansion is expected to create more than 150 highly skilled engineering roles over the next four years, according to Qualcomm. Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney, TD, said he understands that recruitment is “already underway” for many of these jobs.

Qualcomm’s Careers page currently shows various job listings for Cork, such as systems software engineer, computer science engineer and machine learning verification engineer.

“These roles which will provide excellent opportunities for our talent pool to join a world-renowned tech company such as QT Technologies Ireland,” Coveney said. “At the heart of this project is digital transformation, bringing QT Technologies Ireland’s R&D, hardware and software teams together in Cork, and allowing for innovative and exciting new work to be undertaken.”

The Qualcomm subsidiary provides advanced semiconductor technology to mobile communications and other industry sectors. The California-headquartered company first established its presence in Cork in 2013.

In 2020, Qualcomm announced plans to invest €78m to develop the Cork R&D facility. The company said it currently employs hundreds of people in the county.

Paul Kelleher, engineering VP with QT Technologies Ireland, said the latest expansion will enable “digital transformation at every level”.

“We are very proud that this project means the highly skilled teams in Cork will be addressing market challenges by enabling industries such as manufacturing, automotive, hyperscale computing, gaming, medical and education.” Kelleher said.

“QT Technologies Ireland is a very exciting place to work, given our uniqueness in Ireland in developing the broad set of skills and capabilities required to execute on advanced process technology nodes.”

The project is being supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland. The state agency’s CEO Michael Lohan said the latest investment will increase the strategic functions of the Cork facility and significantly enhance the established tech cluster in the south-west of Ireland.

“I wish QT Technologies Ireland continued success and assure them of IDA Ireland’s continued partnership,” Lohan said.

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