Israel is set to launch a tender to establish the country’s first supercomputer, aiming to maintain its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, according to CEO of the state-backed Israel Innovation Authority, Dror Bin.
Bin made the announcement on Wednesday, 26th June at an AI conference. He stated that the supercomputer will be launched in July. While AI has been beneficial for Israel’s tech sector, Bin warned that it could become a liability if proactive measures are not taken, given the rapid evolution of AI technology.
The Israeli government has allocated $250 million for a national AI program that will involve collaboration between the government, industry, and academia. Bin highlighted that 60% of this funding will be utilised in 2024, with the program expected to be completed by 2027, potentially with additional funding.
“Tech accounts for 20% of Israel’s economic output, and the country is widely regarded as one of the largest tech centres in the world,” Bin noted. Among Israel’s 9,000 startups, over 2,200 use AI, and the country boasts 73 generative AI firms, making it the third-highest globally.
“Our goal is to make sure and to secure that Israel sustains its leadership, ranking and position in the AI race in the world,” Bin stated.
He emphasized the necessity of a supercomputer for training large AI models. “When a high-tech company or researcher wants to train a large model, they have to buy time in the cloud since there is no local data centre with a significant amount of GPUs (graphic processing units) that can train those models here,” Bin explained. The supercomputer will be available to researchers and companies at costs lower than the market rate.
