Machinepower Index / Dossiers / Ireland
Rank 31–36 across the scoring rules tested. How this is tested
Ireland
Compute Rentier — For nations whose main asset is the ground itself, meaning cheap clean power, land and stability: host other nations' compute and turn geography into rent, jobs and relevance.
How the Score, Potential and bottleneck cost are worked out: methodology.
The three layers
Energy, grids, data centres and silicon — the physical capacity to run models at scale.
Epoch AI records no large AI clusters or data centres here yet.
Models, alignment capability, standards influence and the talent that produces them.
The capacity to wire AI into the state and the economy while holding public consent.
Where the score comes from
| Layer | Sub-dimension | Basis | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watts | Planning & Permitting | Assessed | 3.8 |
| Firm Power Capacity | Dataset | 2.7 | |
| Sovereign Compute | Dataset | 2.2 | |
| Hardware & Silicon Access | Dataset | 6.5 | |
| Weights | Frontier Model Output | Dataset | 3.0 |
| Alignment Capability | Assessed | 5.8 | |
| Regulatory Standing | Dataset | 9.5 | |
| Talent Density | Assessed | 4.6 | |
| Will | Policy Capacity | Dataset | 8.9 |
| Public Sector Adoption | Dataset | 7.4 | |
| Workforce Transition | Dataset | 8.7 | |
| Public Trust | Dataset | 5.6 |
Assessed marks a measurement we judged rather than took from a dataset: 3 of the 12 here.
Sources
Dublin is closed to new large loads, and sites elsewhere must bring their own generation to match their connection.
View source →Signed the Bletchley statement and spread AI Act enforcement across eight bodies; no safety body.
View source →A cross-check for planning and permitting, which stays assessed: it scores permits and electricity connections for ordinary firms, not grid-scale connections for data centres.
View source →Largest: two unnamed commercial systems.
View source →Stanford does not count Ireland. Estimated from 0.5 million GitHub developers and Oxford Insights' diffusion pillar, averaged with an estimate from LinkedIn's AI talent share (1.26% of members), calibrated on the nations Stanford counts.
View source →Feeds governance and public-sector adoption; policy capacity is listed separately.
View source →The Index scores public trust as 1 + share ÷ 10. Survey of 23,532 adults across 32 countries, March to April 2026.
View source →Feeds workforce, rescaled across 173 economies.
View source →Fossil, nuclear, hydro and other dispatchable plant; averaged with generation for firm power.
View source →Second source for public trust, averaged with Ipsos.
View source →Bottlenecks
These hold Ireland below its Potential. Its two lowest scores cost it the most: sovereign compute at 2.2 (part of Watts) and firm power capacity at 2.7 (part of Watts).
Assessment
Ireland made itself Europe's data-centre capital and then ran out of grid: Dublin is closed to new large loads and new sites must bring their own generation. Its own compute and models are minimal.
The art of the possible
The more durable asset is legal: most US tech firms run their EU business from Ireland, so Irish regulators lead their EU oversight. As AI rules bite, that role is worth more than another campus.
Strategic play — Compute Rentier
Rent the jurisdiction, not just the land: build the regulatory and testing capacity that makes Ireland the place US firms clear EU AI rules.
Leverage — the nearest position. No chokepoint. The nearest key is jurisdiction: Irish regulators supervise much of US tech in Europe. Others defer to the role, but Dublin cannot switch it off.
Open Ireland in the live Index → — every source behind every number, and the comparison tool.