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Chips, quantum are national-security assets: Israel tech chief
Israel’s Innovation Authority chairman has called for the country to treat chips, quantum, and bio-convergence technologies as national-security assets, highlighting their growing importance to the global economy.
Dr. Alon Stopel, who leads the Israel Innovation Authority, made the remarks at Calcalist and Discount’s Global Economy Conference.
He said these three technology sectors—semiconductors, quantum, and bio-convergence—should be strategic national priorities.
Stopel noted that about 10% of Israel’s high-tech workforce is in the chip industry, with firms like Intel, Tower, Nova, and Camtek operating in the sector.
He added that Israel has over 1,500 active deep-tech companies and has raised US$28 billion in deep-tech funding over the past six years.
The Innovation Authority operates on an annual budget of roughly 2 billion shekels (US$610 million), focusing on areas where private sector investment is lacking.
Stopel said the agency supports research, startups, and companies to address market gaps and regulatory barriers.
🔗 Source: Calcalist
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Israel’s national chip, quantum, and bio-convergence push lacks clear commercial pathways
- About 10% of Israel’s high-tech workforce is in chips 1. New chip startups have flatlined as global demand rises 1. For chips, quantum, and bio-convergence, the national-security assets label may not deliver commercial growth without solving heavy capital needs as well as scarce specialized talent 2. Bio-convergence is the fusion of biology, engineering, and computation.
- With a roughly 2 billion shekel annual budget, new steps include a 250 million New Israeli Shekel Fund of Funds 3, an investment vehicle that backs other funds. Yet new company formation is less than half of a decade ago 3. The question is whether money shifts activity from enterprise software or fintech to deep-tech with long Research and Development cycles that chairman Dr. Alon Stopel backs.
- Entrepreneurship and infrastructure programs create co-development pathways in deep-tech
Entrepreneurship training programs offer 70% grants for budgets up to 1 million NIS and 50% grants for budgets between 1–5 million NIS 1. Eligible operators include non-profits; academic institutions; university tech-transfer and commercialization companies; medical institutions; incubators; other business entities 1. Programs run 12 to 36 months in bio-convergence, chips, or quantum 1. - A bio-device Research and Development infrastructure center has NIS 113 million 4. NIS 75 million comes from the Innovation Authority 4. It is under construction and should open in 2025 4. The facility will support chip-based bio-device work that international life sciences or semiconductor tool vendors can access through Israeli partners, with a focus on bridging biology and engineering 4.
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