Seagate has announced a £115 million investment to accelerate nano-photonic research and development at its Derry/Londonderry site, with £100 million coming from the company itself and £15 million in support from Invest NI.
The five-year investment programme is geared towards advancing the company’s hard drive technology to meet soaring global data storage demand driven by hyperscale data centres and AI workloads. The company says the funding will underpin state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing activity in Northern Ireland, with the project expected to create highly skilled roles and increase local supply-chain activity.
John Morris, CTO of Seagate Technology, noted, “In today’s AI-driven world, data volume isn’t just growing – the value of data is evolving as organisations rethink what it takes to train AI models and retain new, highly valuable data. To unlock data’s full potential, we need storage solutions that are not only massive in capacity but engineered for reliability, durability, and scale. That’s exactly what this investment enables.
“Our Northern Ireland facility is a global center of excellence, producing over a quarter of the world’s recording heads and pioneering semiconductor laser R&D – critical for next-generation hard drives. With Invest NI’s support, we’re accelerating the development of 60TB and beyond capacities, laying the foundation for achieving 100 TB drives. This project will expand our global engineering expertise and reinforce our long-standing commitment to innovation in Northern Ireland.”
Invest NI, the region’s economic development agency, has supported Seagate’s Northern Ireland operations for decades and is backing this latest phase.
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.”
Beyond the core engineering work, Seagate says the investment will expand local capability in photonics and related advanced manufacturing, with knock-on benefits for the supplier base and academia. The firm cites ongoing collaborations through the Smart Nano NI Consortium and partnerships with Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University.
Fergus O’Donnell, VP of Wafer Operations NI, added, “This renewed commitment will drive opportunity for our community as we continue to invest in a world-class team and facility at the site. Innovation and partnerships are central to our success and will strengthen our regional and global leadership in technology and manufacturing excellence.”
