Chinese technology giant Alibaba has started to headhunt staff to run its first data centre facility in Ireland.
Last year, the Chinese company’s cloud division announced plans to invest $60 billion (€45 billion) on cloud computing infrastructure over three years. The investment would include eight new data centres globally, including its first in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands.
Ireland was not mentioned as a location as part of the investment plan, but the company has now revealed plans to open a facility here.
In recent days, Alibaba’s website has advertised for data centre IT manager and asset manager roles, based in Dublin.
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The job specifications said the successful candidates for the roles would run a data centre in Ireland for Alibaba, adding that “proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and/or local language is highly preferred”.
New company filings have shown that Alibaba established its first limited company in Ireland in recent days.
The firm was established by Alfred Wan, a senior director of Alibaba’s global data centre unit, and Charles Ma, who is based in Germany and oversees the on-site operations of its European and US data centres.
Earlier this month, Wan said on LinkedIn that the company required headhunting services for large data centre projects globally.
Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for Ireland.
Two professionals who work in the data centre industry here told The Irish Times that little is known about Alibaba’s plans for Ireland.
The Business Post reported in April that Alibaba sought to contract 50 megawatts of power in Ireland for its new data centre, which would be sufficient to run a large-scale facility.
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Alibaba, founded by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, launched Alibaba Cloud in 2009. The latest company filings show its cloud division recorded $6.03 billion (€5.26 billion) in revenue during the financial year to the end of March 2026, which was up 40 per cent year on year.
The company opened its first European data centre in 2016 in Frankfurt, Germany, in partnership with Vodafone. It has since expanded into the UK and earlier this month opened its first such facilities in France.
Last year, at the company’s Apsara Conference, president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Fei-Fei Li said its data centre expansion plan was required to keep pace with how AI was changing business.
“Our strategic expansion of global infrastructure is designed to cater for the accelerating demand from forward-thinking customers,” she said.
A recent report by Bitpower, the data centre consultancy, said Ireland has 107 data centres in operation with nine more facilities under construction. Its report added that another 43 data centres have received planning approval.
Last year, an effective moratorium on the connection of new data centres to the electricity grid in the Greater Dublin Area was lifted by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.
The move was expected to result in a rise in data centre development as many large tech firms have committed to investing in cloud infrastructure to sustain growing demand for artificial intelligence services.
