Israel aims to become an AI superpower. Price tag could reach tens of billions of dollars

But behind these celebratory announcements lie significant budgetary challenges and long-standing political gaps. To better understand the implications of this plan, ynet spoke to Professor Nadav Cohen, a computer science and AI researcher at Tel Aviv University and co-founder of Imbit.

“Debating this on a national level is positive in itself, but for a country like Israel, the desire to be completely independent across all layers of the technology stack is too ambitious. In reality, few countries in the world are fully independent. The idea that every computing component, model, and chip will be ‘Made in Israel’ is simply aiming too high.”

Cohen said the state should focus on physical AI and edge systems.

“One of the key areas is physical AI, specifically edge units. Edge units are the components that ultimately operate in the real physical world. This doesn’t necessarily mean humanoid robots or robot dogs. Most of the economically viable applications are industrial, such as software that drives manufacturing lines or mechanical arms.”

“Israel has a significant advantage in edge systems for several reasons. First, we have extensive defense experience with systems operating in the field in critical and complex environments. Second, the cost of error is very high in the physical world. , reliability and security are very important. Israeli academia has a strong foundation in the mathematical and algorithmic understanding required to ensure such a system. It’s better to be very good in some areas than to try to do everything.”

Israel’s efforts come amid an unprecedented global race among countries to develop AI systems that meet national needs.

In Europe, this approach has become more centralized and government-led, with the European Union pursuing a project to deploy advanced computing infrastructure at six sites to ensure digital sovereignty over the U.S. market. In China, by contrast, the Chinese government has tightly controlled the sector, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into sovereign computing infrastructure to reduce dependence on Western chips.

Israel’s stated goal of building 100,000 GPU computing systems for national use is an attempt to build a public alternative to computing power that is currently controlled almost entirely by commercial cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

As Mr. Cohen highlighted, from a global market perspective, establishing such a large-scale computing and data center network based on advanced AI GPUs is a huge financial undertaking, estimated at $20 billion to $30 billion or more, due to the extreme demand and global shortage of advanced silicon components.

In addition to AI infrastructure, the plan also includes promoting the establishment of a national quantum computer based on Israeli technology. The National Quantum Computing Project effectively began in 2021 with discussions led by the Research and Development National Infrastructure Forum and the Directorate General of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), and was formally launched in February 2022 with a dedicated budget of approximately 200 million shekels under then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The broader national plan has not made significant progress since then under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government, but its reauthorization would effectively restart earlier efforts to keep up with global developments.

Internationally, the cost of building a single industrial-scale quantum computer is estimated to be between $20 million and $100 million, due to the need for extreme cooling systems close to absolute zero and complete isolation from environmental noise. “We’re not connecting the two fields at this point. Artificial intelligence is here now, but quantum computing will not make meaningful contributions to AI until much further down the road,” Cohen said.

The approved plan is expected to focus national efforts on human capital development, workforce transition plans, and targeted investments in AI-based cybersecurity, physical AI, and deepfake defenses (areas where Israel has a relative advantage due to its security ecosystem).

Ultimately, Israel’s ambition to become a global AI powerhouse, like its success in cybersecurity, will be measured not by declarations but by execution: budget, infrastructure, and implementation.

“A big part of the power of a national plan like this is its focus,” Cohen said. “Trying to achieve independence across models and chips could consume all the country’s energy, but it will still not be enough. The focus must be clear. We must recognize where we cannot be independent and lead where we can.”

What do you think is the least important element of government programs that currently requires urgent attention?

“In a sense, academia is the 8200 of the AI ​​world. The local cybersecurity industry would not have reached its current level without the military technology sector, but in artificial intelligence, academia is the engine. AI development is a knowledge-intensive industry, requiring long-term training and a very strong mathematical foundation.”

“With all due respect to graduates of elite military engineering units, leaders in AI are often PhDs and professors, as is the case in the United States and China. Graduates of programs like Talpiot are much more powerful if they also have advanced degrees. We need to understand that the well we draw from in this field is academic.”