Demand for knowledge centre gear seems to be driving a increase in Northern Ireland manufacturing, new official figures counsel.
NI manufacturing grew at an annual price of 9% in the second quarter of this 12 months, in contrast to a UK average of just 1.2%.
NI has been outperforming the UK average since the begin of last 12 months.
The growth in NI has been concentrated in “computer, electronic, electrical, and optical products” which grew at an annual price of virtually 28% in the most current quarter.
That subsector contains a cluster of native firms which make energy gear for knowledge centres.
Data centres are successfully warehouses full of laptop servers which are central to the operations of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Companies like Microsoft, Google and OpenAI have been investing billions of kilos in centres like these as they compete to create the quickest and most helpful AI providers.
These services require huge, uninterrupted energy provide.
Several native firms specialise in the design and manufacture of these energy systems.
AI jobs across the island of Ireland
Last month the managing director of one of these corporations advised the BBC they were experiencing “astronomical” demand for their merchandise.
Michael Beagan runs TES in Ballykelly which was just lately taken over by a massive 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 sturdy manufacturing efficiency may also mirror knowledge centre demand for the merchandise made at the Seagate manufacturing facility in Londonderry
It makes arduous disc drives which AI firms need to store the huge quantities of knowledge which underpin their providers.
Earlier this week the Republic of Ireland’s Central Bank said AI and knowledge centre gear is accounting of an more and more massive share of investment spending in the nation.
It said the worth of imports of “machinery and equipment” had risen at an annual price of 56% in the second quarter of this 12 months.
It added that the sample of imports was “consistent with continued AI and data centre investment and the imports of the hardware typically used in them.”
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