Jason Ward

Well, Dell Technologies today were a $100 billion organisation, probably the silent leader in AI.

And if you think about a lot of the large language models or AI providers you hear in the world today, whether it's OpenAI, Cloud, Anthropic, Perplexity, a lot of these large language models are underpinned by Dell infrastructure.

So, Joe, you mentioned Dell is recognised as PCs, desktops.

You know, a lot of customers in Ireland would use a Dell PC and desktop.

But fundamentally, Dell today is driving the AI engine around all of these large language models.

So our servers, our storage and our networking infrastructure actually provides the compute capacity to drive and manage all of these large language models.

Well, I would say we're pleased but not satisfied.

Look, Ireland and the IDA and the government have been a huge supporter of Dell Technologies.

I think, look, Ireland can still lead in AI, but, you know, we must reset and have a forward-looking strategy.

Regardless of what people like or dislike around data centers and AI, the fundamental point here is that data centers are going to consume and require a huge amount of energy.

So for Ireland to be competitive in the AI arms race, we really are going to have to deploy an awful lot more energy to sustain large language models, AI companies, and underpin the innovation that's happening globally.

So we can still lead, but we need to act now.

Okay.

Why have we fallen behind?

Well, I think there's a number of reasons.

Ireland has been a very productive nation, very, very high GDP.

We've been very successful in the digital age, if you think about all of the large technology companies that came to Ireland and the pharmaceuticals have contributed hugely to Ireland's GDP.

But

Along the line, in terms of our national grid, the energy grid, in terms of energy production, we have fallen a little bit behind.

If you look at our Nordic neighbours, you know, the amount of green energy they provide to their grid is far superior than what we have here in Ireland.