The pursuit of tech innovation has received a powerful push in Israel.
The nation has officially activated its national AI supercomputer, delivering access to Nvidia B200 accelerators for Israeli companies and researchers.
Israeli companies had no local supercomputers designed for AI model training and were forced to rely on expensive global cloud services. Now, with over 90% of Israeli hi-tech workers using AI and approximately 22,000 companies already integrating AI into their products, this infrastructure is very useful.
The supercomputer operates under Israel’s National Program for AI R&D Infrastructure, known as the Telem Program, marking Israel’s transition from AI consumer to AI power broker.
Amsterdam startup wins
While everyone expected a major tech corporation to win this contract, something unexpected happened during the selection process. The Amsterdam-based AI cloud company Nebius was chosen by the Israel Innovation Authority following an extensive tender process—beating out established players.
Their winning bid included computing power four times greater than the baseline requirements, delivering approximately 16,000 petaflops of capacity when the minimum would have sufficed. Even more aggressive: the company committed to providing discounted computing power at twice the required volume, essentially doubling down on their confidence in Israel’s AI future.
Behind this victory lies an investment exceeding NIS 500 million ($158 million), which includes NIS 160 million ($50.5 million) in government support.
Resource allocation strategy
What Israeli companies can build now was impossible just weeks ago. Over the coming years, the program will distribute computing resources equivalent to 1,000 Nvidia B200 accelerators, but the allocation strategy reveals Israel’s calculated approach to maximizing innovation impact.
Commercial hi-tech companies receive 70% of the resources specifically for training large-scale AI models, while academic research groups are allocated 30% for fundamental studies. This isn’t a static distribution—the allocation is expected to expand in the future as demand grows, suggesting Israel is preparing for explosive demand that officials clearly see coming.
Access requirements ensure serious commitment: applications require a minimum usage period of one to six months, with companies requesting at least 16 B200 accelerators and academic groups requesting at least eight. For qualifying organizations, high-tech companies gain access to high-availability supercomputing at costs significantly lower than market rates, enabling domestic AI model development and training that was previously financially impossible within Israel.
At the races
According to Statista, a 2025 study crowned Israel the leading emerging hub for AI startups globally. It found that Israeli firms received the highest Mosaic health score on average, relative to other global centers. The reputation of the country’s technology industry is well established, regularly ranking high in global measures for R&D investment, and unicorn creation. Its edge lies in a dynamic tech ecosystem, academic excellence, and an industry-minded policy environment.
Meanwhile, countries are rapidly building independent AI capabilities rather than relying solely on foreign cloud providers. Officials describe this as a critical step toward accelerating innovation and ensuring Israel remains a global AI leader, but the timing reveals urgent strategic calculations about addressing growing global constraints in AI computing that threaten to limit innovation worldwide.
The Innovation Authority has entered what they call “the significant phase of actual resource allocation,” moving from theoretical planning to active deployment—a transition happening across multiple countries simultaneously. The implications extend far beyond national borders.
The supercomputer’s activation marks the beginning of Phase II of Israel’s National Artificial Intelligence Program, but consider the foundation this builds upon. Based on 2024 data, Israel ranked third globally in generative AI firms and hosted over 2,200 AI-utilizing startups out of 9,000 total startups. This infrastructure provides computational foundation for breakthrough innovations that could emerge faster than anyone anticipates.
The UK government has appointed two industry veterans to spearhead AI adoption across financial services.
