Cyprus has discovered a taste for big tech. Ireland knows the recipe

Cyprus is becoming rather good at attracting international technology companies. Its latest economic figures suggest the country is changing faster than many people realise. The more interesting question, though, is whether that success can benefit the wider economy, rather than simply the businesses that have chosen to move here. According to the statistical service’s (Cystat) revised national accounts, information and communication activities generated €4.64 billion in value added in 2025, almost twice the €2.32bn produced by accommodation and food services. For a country that has spent decades selling sunshine, beaches and hotel rooms, that is quite a change. Tourism remains enormously important, of course, and its contribution extends well beyond hotels and restaurants. The figures nevertheless reveal how Cyprus’ economic character is changing, with international business and digital services taking an increasingly prominent role. There is another island at the opposite end of Europe that knows this story rather well. Ireland. Walk through Dublin’s Silicon Docks and the names are difficult to miss. Google, Meta and Salesforce occupy offices that would once have seemed improbable in a country better known for emigration than for attracting some of the world’s most valuable businesses. Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, TikTok, Airbnb, HubSpot and Stripe have also established substantial Irish operations. Beyond Dublin, Apple, Intel, Dell Technologies, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, Ericsson and Qualcomm have helped build one of Europe’s most extensive technology industries. Now OpenAI, Anthropic and a new generation of artificial intelligence companies are joining them. The interesting part is how Ireland got there. In 1980, Apple opened a manufacturing facility in Cork with just 60 employees. The American company was only four years old, and Ireland was struggling with unemployment and emigration. Today, Apple employs approximately 6,000 people in Ireland. In February 2026, it opened another building at its Cork campus, capable of accommodating 1,300 employees, and announced plans for its first permanent office in Dublin. Microsoft arrived in 1985, initially manufacturing computer software on physical discs. Four decades later, its Irish operations encompass cloud computing, engineering, research and international business services. By 2025, Microsoft and its wider group employed more than 6,400 people in the country. Intel followed in 1989, choosing Leixlip in County Kildare for its European manufacturing operations. It has since invested around €30bn, including the €17bn Fab 34 semiconductor facility, one of Europe’s most advanced chip manufacturing plants. These companies did considerably more than rent offices and establish convenient European addresses. They built operations requiring engineers, technicians, suppliers and skills that would take years to develop. And others followed. Google established its European headquarters in Dublin in 2003 and now employs more than 6,000 people in Ireland. Amazon has invested over €25bn since 2010, building operations that employ around 6,500 people across technology, cloud infrastructure, logistics and other activities. The latest investments are bringing increasingly specialised work. In October 2026, Stripe, founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, announced another 200 jobs in Dublin, where its workforce had already passed 1,000. OpenAI announced plans in July to add 250 jobs at its Dublin European headquarters, while Anthropic unveiled plans for 200 additional Irish positions by 2027. Meanwhile, MongoDB is investing €74m in engineering and AI development in Dublin and Cork, with OpenText committing €105m to operations supporting 400 jobs in Cork and Galway. The attraction is no longer simply about persuading international companies to establish European headquarters. Ireland has become a place where they develop products, conduct research and build technology used around the world. And the economic contribution is substantial. By the end of 2025, companies supported by IDA Ireland, the national investment promotion agency, employed 312,468 people, around 11 per cent of the country’s workforce. The agency secured 323 investment projects during the year, associated with plans for another 15,319 jobs. Its client companies also spent €40.7bn on payroll, Irish materials and services in 2024, including €11.6bn paid to Irish service providers and €3.8bn spent on Irish materials. That distinction matters. A multinational employing hundreds of people is valuable. One that also buys from local suppliers, trains graduates, develops products and supports research can be worth considerably more to the wider economy. Ireland has spent decades building those relationships. In 2025 alone, IDA-backed companies committed a record €2.5bn across 80 research and development projects. For Cyprus, there is plenty worth studying. The island has already made considerable progress in attracting its own international technology industry. Companies including Wargaming, Exness, JetBrains, inDrive, ASBIS and payabl. are only part of a much bigger picture. Gaming businesses such as GDEV, MY.GAMES and Easybrain have established operations on the island, alongside software and engineering companies including Amdocs, DataArt, Wrike, 3CX and Murex. Meanwhile, Capital.com, Unlimit and Sumsub have strengthened its financial technology and digital verification industries, with Palta, TheSoul Publishing, Welltech, AdTech Holding, Odyssey Cybersecurity and Bolt extending the country’s reach into digital media, health technology, advertising, cybersecurity and mobility. Nor is this exclusively a Limassol success story. Wargaming is headquartered in Nicosia, while JetBrains has research and development centres in Limassol and Paphos. The investment figures explain why the industry has become such an important part of Cyprus’ economic ambitions. According to Invest Cyprus, gross foreign direct investment inflows reached €8.5bn in 2024, with €2.6bn directed towards ICT. More than 420 companies established operations through the Business Support Centre during the period covered by the agency’s 2024 and 2025 reporting. The revised national accounts also put Cyprus’ economic growth at 4.8 per cent in 2025, with earlier figures adjusted to account for large businesses conducting substantial cross-border activities. And that is where Ireland’s experience becomes particularly interesting. In 2025, the Irish economy recorded GDP of €602.4bn. Its modified gross national income, known as GNI, was considerably smaller, at €334bn. The country’s statistics office developed the adjusted measure to remove particular globalisation effects, including those associated with intellectual property and multinational operations, that can distort conventional GDP figures. The investments, businesses and jobs are real. But economic activity recorded in a country’s national accounts does not necessarily produce an equivalent improvement in living standards. For Cyprus, increasingly exposed to the effects of international business activity on its economic figures, that is an important distinction. There is another Irish number worth examining. According to the country’s Revenue Commissioners, foreign-owned multinationals accounted for 87 per cent of underlying corporation tax receipts in 2025. Just ten companies contributed 56 per cent of the €32.9bn collected, excluding exceptional receipts associated with the European Court of Justice’s ruling concerning Apple. That is an extraordinary source of revenue for a government. It is also a considerable concentration of risk. Changes to international tax rules, corporate profitability or investment decisions taken thousands of miles away can have consequences far beyond the companies themselves. Ireland has already experienced the less comfortable side of multinational employment. TikTok’s Irish headcount fell by 600 during 2025, according to accounts reported in October 2026, with further reductions proposed this year. Amazon and Microsoft have also faced workforce cuts. The investment is valuable, but it is not guaranteed. The tax environment is changing, too. Cyprus increased its standard corporation tax rate from 12.5 to 15 per cent in January 2026. Ireland continues to apply 12.5 per cent to ordinary trading income, although large multinational groups covered by international minimum-tax rules must meet a 15 per cent effective minimum rate. Competition for investment increasingly depends on skilled workers, infrastructure, legal certainty, research capabilities and access to international markets. Ireland has spent decades developing those advantages. Cyprus has strengths of its own, particularly its maritime industry, professional services and position between Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Trying to reproduce the Irish economy in miniature would make little sense. There is, though, another part of Ireland’s experience that Cyprus would be unwise to overlook. Housing. Between 2015 and 2025, Irish residential property prices increased by 97.2 per cent, according to the country’s Central Statistics Office. Dublin’s housing shortage has become one of the country’s most pressing economic problems, with expensive accommodation affecting households and businesses struggling to recruit staff. The causes extend well beyond multinational investment. Years of inadequate housing supply, construction constraints and demographic pressures have all contributed. But attracting highly paid international workers without providing enough homes adds pressure to an already stretched market. The comparison with Limassol is difficult to ignore. According to the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), residential property prices increased by 8.5 per cent nationally in the second quarter of 2026. In Limassol, they rose by 7.8 per cent. Foreign demand was among the factors identified by the central bank, alongside domestic demand and construction costs. An expensive apartment may be manageable for an international executive earning a multinational salary. A young Cypriot professional trying to buy a first home may have a rather different experience. There is little economic sense in attracting businesses if the people needed to support them cannot afford to live nearby. Ireland’s technology industry has also placed growing demands on its energy infrastructure. In 2025, data centres consumed 23 per cent of all metered electricity in the country, compared with just 5 per cent a decade earlier. For Cyprus, where electricity costs and energy security already weigh heavily on business competitiveness, the implications are worth considering. An international technology industry needs more than favourable tax arrangements and attractive offices. It needs infrastructure capable of supporting its growth. None of this diminishes what Ireland has achieved. A country once associated with emigration has attracted some of the world’s most influential companies, developed sophisticated research capabilities and created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Its success is substantial, even if the economic statistics require careful interpretation. Cyprus is right to pursue international technology investment. Expanding digital services offers an opportunity to broaden an economy traditionally reliant on tourism, property, shipping and professional services. The question is what sort of investment success Cyprus wants. More international headquarters and company registrations will undoubtedly strengthen parts of the economy. But the greater achievement would be seeing Cypriot graduates developing products for international markets, local suppliers winning multinational contracts, universities conducting commercially valuable research and homegrown businesses growing alongside the companies arriving from abroad. That is where Ireland’s experience offers its most valuable lesson. Apple arrived in Cork with 60 workers. More than four decades later, its operations have helped transform an entire region. That is the kind of lasting economic benefit Cyprus should be trying to build. Because attracting the world’s biggest companies is one achievement. Making sure the people who already live here share in that success is quite another.