OpenAI announces 200 additional jobs Ireland, news for Ireland, FDI,

OpenAI announced it will create 200 additional jobs in Ireland, including roles to support a new Applied AI Lab at its EU headquarters. Supported by IDA Ireland, this investment will strengthen the company’s technical and operational presence locally and help European businesses deploy advanced AI solutions.

This week’s announcement adds 200 further roles to the 250 announced in July 2026, bringing the company’s total commitment to at least 450 new roles locally. OpenAI currently employs over 120 people in Ireland. Taoiseach Micheál Martin joined OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar and IDA Ireland CEO Michael Lohan to mark the investment.

The new roles will be based at the company’s new EU headquarters at Tropical Fruit Warehouse, which the company will occupy from December 2026. Technical roles within the Applied AI Lab will include forward deployed engineers, who work directly with customers to build and deploy AI applications, as well as solutions and privacy engineers.

Hiring also spans all other functions, from GTM (sales) to User Operations. “Since we opened our EU headquarters in Dublin three years ago, Ireland has been critical to our success in Europe," said Sarah Friar, CFO, OpenAI. "I’m delighted we’re deepening our investment here, creating 200 more jobs and helping turn advances in frontier AI into local opportunity.” OpenAI will extend its ‘OpenAI for Ireland’ programme for start-ups, SMEs and builders.

A new ‘Founder Cafe’ initiative, in partnership with Dogpatch Labs, will see some 150 high-potential founders from across Ireland get advanced AI skills training in ChatGPT, Codex and API to prototype faster and help bring business ideas to reality. 'Support Founders' In addition, OpenAI will continue its SME Academy events across Ireland, starting in Cork in November 2026, in addition to its ongoing support of the Patch programme for young builders from ages 16 - 21.

"Through our new Applied AI Lab, expansion of our partnership with Dogpatch Labs and wider roll-out of the SME Academy, we want to help Irish businesses grow, support founders in turning ideas into thriving companies and equip more people across the country to benefit from AI," said Sarah Friar.