by James Spiro
The ongoing commitment encompasses a broader national strategy to further integrate itself among Israeli talent and tech.
Months after NVIDIA confirmed its plans to double down on Israel, the country is trying to woo the company to settle in the northern town of Kiryat Tivon, mere minutes away from its Yokneam site and home to the first location it established after acquiring Mellanox in 2019.
The news comes soon after the company secured a collaboration with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center and Mount Sinai for a multi-year partnership to explore the human genome with LLMs, adding a major healthcare and research collaboration to its expanding footprint in the country.
The world’s most valuable chipmaker is making a bet: that Israel’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem remains one of the few places capable of accelerating breakthroughs at scale and securing its place as one of the top big players in the years to come.
“I see NVIDIA’s major expansion here as a powerful endorsement of Israel’s attractiveness for cutting-edge semiconductor and AI projects,” said Asaf Bruner, Engineering Group Manager at SAP and head of its AI community. “In many ways, Israel has become the ‘go-to’ hub for advanced tech R&D, and NVIDIA’s move amplifies that reputation.”
Citing a LinkedIn AI Talent Index that suggests Israel has a workforce with the highest percentage of AI-related skills, its reputation as a “Startup Nation,” and its culture of innovation and agility, Bruner says it’s no wonder that NVIDIA is choosing this moment to double down in Israel.
“It’s a feedback loop: Israeli talent and innovation attracted NVIDIA, and NVIDIA’s growing presence will further enrich the talent and ecosystem here,” he added. “This expansion loudly signals that if you’re doing high-end AI and semiconductor R&D, Israel is the place to be.”
While nothing has been officially confirmed by either side, a local report suggested that Israel is proposing that the U.S. chip giant select Kiryat Tivon as the location for its new R&D base. The Israel Land Authority proposed the site and signaled it would exempt the location from the standard tender process to accommodate the company’s request to have “high accessibility to main traffic arteries and public transportation” in the Haifa and Zichron Yaakov areas.
A spokesman for NVIDIA has denied that Kiryat Tivon is the selected location for the expansion, saying: “We haven’t announced anything and we’re still exploring all options.” In separate news, the company has confirmed its commitment to the country’s southern region with a new 3,000-square-meter site in Beersheva next year.
While Israel’s northern region may surprise those who are most familiar with Israel’s tech hubs in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, it could be attractive to large companies looking to expand. Kiryat Tivon is close to Haifa, the Technion and the Carmel tech corridor, and would grant the company access to a modest but highly educated workforce that lacks abundant high-quality tech jobs. It is also close to NVIDIA’s existing presence in Yokneam, a nearby tech hub.
For Israel, further decentralization from these two hubs would produce an economic uplift for peripheral regions and help solidify its place as a leading sandbox for AI talent. Attracting a major NVIDIA campus has also become a strategic priority for Israel: countries worldwide are competing aggressively to secure advanced semiconductor investment.
This latest decision is expected to be announced in early December, just weeks after the announcement by the ARC Innovation at Sheba Medical Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai of a three-year collaboration with NVIDIA. The aim of the collaboration is to harness the power of artificial intelligence for genomic discovery through the application of large language model (LLM) technology. The deal signals the company’s confidence in healthcare and the tech it can bring to research and development globally.
Sheba Medical Center is one of the top 10 hospitals globally, and its ARC Innovation ecosystem connects entrepreneurs and clinicians to advance the development and implementation of new AI and tech solutions in healthcare.
Bruner describes NVIDIA’s continued commitment to Israel and Israeli tech as “acting as an anchor and accelerator for Israeli startups in AI, chips and cloud. It anchors the ecosystem by providing resources, validation and a direct link into global markets… And it accelerates it by upping the stakes—pushing everyone to skill up and innovate harder.”
Today, Israel’s AI ecosystem is already one of the strongest worldwide. A recent Microsoft report highlighted Israel as one of the world’s leading countries in developing AI models, building computing infrastructure, and adopting artificial intelligence applications. Its AI Diffusion Report confirmed that Israel is one of seven countries that rank among the top 200 AI models. The distance between the world’s leader—the United States—and Israel is 11 months, according to the report.
For Aviv Zeevi, VP and head of the Technological Infrastructure Division at the Israel Innovation Authority, the investment in the country underscores NVIDIA’s confidence in local capabilities.
“Israel cannot afford to be complacent; it must update and scale its academic and industrial training programs to maintain this advantage,” he warned. “At a time when governments around the world are spending billions to strengthen their semiconductor innovation ecosystems, Israel must ensure a comprehensive response—in infrastructure and applied research—to maintain a high-quality flow of ideas that will reinforce the innovation environment.”
The IIA is the support and investment arm of the Israeli government, which plans and executes the country’s innovation policy, specifically in relation to R&D. With the new NVIDIA campus on the horizon, the whole sector is asking how the U.S. powerhouse will change Israel—and what part Israel will play in the global fight for chip and AI dominance.
Overall, it appears that NVIDIA is betting big on Israel—not just in healthcare, and not just in regional hubs, but all over: Its presence will be felt across sectors in the years to come. All eyes now turn to early December, when the company is expected to make its decision. Whether or not it selects Kiryat Tivon, the company’s expanding footprint makes clear that Israel will continue to play a central role in the global race for AI and semiconductor leadership.
James Spiro
Source: https://www.jns.org/nvidia-explores-major-rd-expansion-in-northern-israel/
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