The First Minister and deputy First Minister have welcomed a
major investment by Seagate Technology Holdings at its plant in
Derry/Londonderry.
The £115 million investment over five years in the development of
new hard drive technology will strengthen the position of
Seagate's North West facility as a world leader in nanophotonics
R&D engineering and create a number of new jobs.
Speaking during a visit to the site to mark the announcement,
First Minister said: “Since
Seagate established in Derry in 1993, it has become a world-class
manufacturing facility and one of the area's largest employers.
The company continues to offer high quality jobs and career
opportunities for local people and contributes millions of pounds
to our economy.
“As an Executive we are committed to promoting regional
balance, and this latest investment by Seagate is another welcome
boost for the North West that will bring new jobs and significant
benefits to local people and communities.”
Deputy First Minister said: “We
want Northern Ireland to be at the forefront of global innovation
and this investment demonstrates the strength of our talent and
our capacity to compete on the world stage in cutting-edge
technology sectors.
“The growth of Artificial Intelligence presents major
opportunities and this substantial commitment from Seagate
reinforces our position as a hub for innovation and technological
excellence and will ensure we can continue to drive economic
growth.”
A leading producer of mass data storage solutions, Seagate is
working to develop technology for a 60TB+ hard drive. And its
North West facility, which manufactures recording heads that read
and write data on to hard disks, will play a critical role in the
development of the next generation hard drive.
Economy Minister Dr , who also attended the
announcement, said: “Seagate is not only part of our
community in the North West, but a cornerstone of our growing
economy here.
“Today's investment will support Seagate to ramp up
productivity and create more good jobs. And it will further
strengthen the strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities that
are growing in reputation here.”
Seagate's latest investment in the North West, which has been
supported with £15m of funding from Invest NI, will see the
creation of more than 30 highly skilled jobs, adding to the
company's current workforce of over 1,300 people at the site.
Dr John Morris, Chief Technology Officer at Seagate, said: “As AI
models grow more powerful and data creation accelerates, the need
for high-capacity, high-performance, and economical mass storage
becomes even more essential. Our Northern Ireland facility is at
the heart of this transformation, with over twenty-five per cent
of the world's recording heads now made here.
“With Invest NI's support, this project will fast-track our
development of 60TB and beyond capacities. We're proud to
continue investing in Northern Ireland, where our journey in
revolutionary technologies began more than three decades ago.”
Kieran Donoghue, Chief Executive at Invest NI, said: “We have
worked very closely with Seagate over the past three decades and
have helped the facility here evolve into a world-leading
manufacturing and pioneering R&D Centre. We are delighted to
support the Seagate team with this latest project and secure the
development of the new recording heads and laser technology in
the North West.
“This puts Northern Ireland at the forefront of the company's
innovation plans and will enable it to ramp up productivity
through state-of the-art equipment. The Seagate and Invest
NI teams will now work together to ensure the successful
implementation of this major investment.”
Notes to editors:
- Seagate Technology, a leading manufacturer of mass capacity
hard drives and storage solutions, is one of the largest
employers in the North West, currently employing over 1,300
people.
- As part of this R&D project, Seagate will use
nanophotonics (light-based technology on an atomic level) to
pilot reducing the size of the reading and writing components on
its recording heads and implement a new light delivery system.
This will allow the 60+TB hard drives to offer data energy
efficiency and improved AI implementation. New multi-reader
technology will also enable a significant hard drive performance
boost. The project will lay the foundation for Seagate to achieve
its ambition of demonstrating 100TB drives by 2030.
- This latest investment will see the creation of over 30 new
highly-skilled jobs.
