Israel has officially entered the global race for AI compute power.
On Sunday, the Israel Innovation Authority announced the launch of Israel’s national AI supercomputer, a live, operational system designed to give startups and researchers access to cutting-edge AI hardware at reduced cost. Unlike many government AI projects that exist mostly on paper, this one is already running — and allocating resources.
At the core of the system are 1,000 Nvidia B200 accelerators, some of the most advanced chips currently available for training large AI models. The message is clear: in the era of generative AI, compute is strategy.
Why this matters now
AI innovation is increasingly bottlenecked by access to powerful chips. Cloud prices are rising, GPU availability is tight, and smaller companies are often pushed to the back of the line. Israel’s approach tackles that problem head-on by centralizing high-end compute and making it available locally — before startups are forced to look overseas.
The infrastructure was built and is being operated by Nebius, which was selected through a competitive tender. Its role is to manage the system and ensure companies and researchers can tap into the hardware without dealing with the complexity of building their own AI clusters.
Startups get first access
The initial allocation phase focuses on Israel’s high-tech sector. Eligible companies can apply to use the supercomputer’s resources at subsidized rates, significantly lowering the cost of training large language models, computer vision systems, and other compute-heavy AI applications.
For early-stage startups, this could be transformative. Training advanced models often costs millions of dollars in cloud compute alone. By lowering that barrier, Israel is effectively betting that faster experimentation will lead to faster breakthroughs.
Academia is next
In the coming weeks, the Innovation Authority plans to open access to academic researchers. Universities and public research institutions will be able to run experiments that were previously impractical due to hardware limitations.
This move is expected to deepen collaboration between academia and industry — a model Israel has relied on for decades to turn research into commercial technology.
The global AI compute arms race
Israel’s launch comes as governments worldwide scramble to secure AI infrastructure. The US, EU, and parts of Asia are all investing heavily in national compute projects as Nvidia’s most advanced chips become strategic assets.
What sets Israel apart is speed. The system isn’t a future roadmap — it’s live, funded, and already being used. That urgency reflects a broader reality: countries that fail to secure AI compute risk falling behind, regardless of talent.
What happens next
The real test won’t be measured in teraflops, but outcomes. Will startups scale faster? Will academic research translate into commercial AI products? And can the system keep up as demand for compute continues to explode?
For now, Israel has made its move — and it’s a decisive one.
Conclusion
In a world where AI progress depends on who controls the chips, Israel isn’t waiting in line. It’s building its own machine.