950 Enterprise Ireland clients export to the US. Landing there is a different job.

Enterprise Ireland, the Irish state's export agency, says 950 of its client companies export to the US. In October, thirty went there on a trade mission and fourteen announced deals or expansion.

The first figure is from Enterprise Ireland's 2025 annual report. The second is the agency's own count, in its release of 21 October 2026. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, the inward-investment agency, ran the mission, and the Minister for Enterprise, Peter Burke, took part.

The US in numbers

North America was 7.3 billion euro of client exports in 2025, which is 19% of the total and up 1%. The agency calls that a resilient outcome given the tariff pressure.

Of the 950 clients that export to the US, about 450 are expected to be most affected by the 15% US tariff on EU goods. Those firms sold 3.8 billion euro of goods into the US in 2024.

The chief executive, Jenny Melia, said in January that client companies employ about 116,000 people in the US. That is her figure, as reported by the Irish Examiner, and I have not found it in the annual report. In the same article she described the advice to clients: hold what they have in the US, push deeper, and start to diversify into other markets.

What Enterprise Ireland said about the mission

Aidan McKenna, Enterprise Ireland's Head of Americas, said in the release that the mission reflects the momentum its client companies are building in the US, and that the opportunity now is to turn those relationships into sustained growth. Jenny Melia said Irish companies remain ambitious about the market and continue to invest, hire and win new business there.

Landing means funding and people on the ground

Exporting into the US and landing there are different jobs. Landing means funding, people, premises and a signed customer. Enterprise Ireland's own examples show it.

CEL Critical Power invested 40 million dollars in a Virginia plant with 250 jobs, targeting 500 by 2030. Tines plans 100 new US jobs in 12 months, a 42% rise in its US headcount. From the October mission, LPI Group plans 250 new US jobs over five years, and Akara will roll out across 8 to 9 hospitals in Southern California over 12 to 18 months. All of these are company-reported, as published by Enterprise Ireland.

Many European budgets get the cost of a US hire wrong

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that US private employers paid 32.8 dollars an hour in wages and a further 14.1 dollars an hour in benefits in June 2026. The release headlines benefits as 30% of total pay. Measured against wages, which is how a European budget thinks, it is about 43% on top (my calculation). Those figures cover all US private industry, not technology firms.

What I saw from the inside

In Silicon Valley, other countries' agencies often complimented Enterprise Ireland on its people, its network and its visibility, and its clients said the same. I rarely, if ever, met a founder from any other country who was not jealous of the support that Enterprise Ireland clients got overseas, and that holds worldwide, not only in the Americas. If you are an Irish company going abroad and you are not using Enterprise Ireland, you are handing your competitors a head start.

What I would test first

I spent 11 years in Silicon Valley, and over my career I have advised about 400 companies on going abroad, funding and exits. My test for any US plan is this: is there a signed anchor client, meaning a customer who has committed? If there is, the plan has something to build on, because that customer pays for the first hire and makes every later meeting easier. If there is no customer yet, it is a weak start, and I would want to know why before spending on a US presence.

I often advise the UK first, on cost, language and distance, and the tariffs strengthen that case. If the US is the plan, for any Irish company the Irish network, including Enterprise Ireland, is a strategic asset for the board. It gives a company two things that are slow to build alone: credibility with US investors and a route to its first customer. I know this network and how to capitalise on it.

Three questions for any board whose company is planning a US landing:

1. Who is our anchor client in the US, and is the relationship signed or only warm?
2. What does the first US hire cost, and when does it pay back?
3. If a tariff or a customer contract changes, how much of our US revenue is exposed?

If you are planning a US landing

If you are a tech company planning your US landing, talk to me. I have helped 130+ Irish companies land in the US, and I help boards decide whether, when and how to go: the market, the funding, the anchor client and the first hires. Message me.

Tell me what I have missed.

If your company is planning a move between Europe and the US, read how I work on market entry, or get in touch.