Israel Launches National AI Action Plan, Setting Goal of Becoming a Global Artificial Intelligence Power

Government-backed strategy commits to a National AI Institute, "acceleration reactors (labs)," a 100,000-accelerator computing base, a domestic quantum computer, and a push to attract the world's leading AI labs to Israel

JERUSALEM, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Israel's National Artificial Intelligence Directorate, operating within the Prime Minister's Office, announced this week that the government has adopted a national artificial intelligence strategy committing the country to building the infrastructure, institutions, and international partnerships needed to compete among the world's leading AI powers.

The plan, formulated pursuant to Government Resolution 4255, "Accelerating Artificial Intelligence in Israel and Establishing Global Leadership," lays out a five-year vision the Directorate calls "Lived AI" - built on the conviction that Israel's advantage will come not from building the largest AI models, but from being the first country where AI is fully integrated into daily public life, from healthcare to education to government services.

"In the coming decade, the State of Israel will stand before one of the most significant turning points in its history," said Brig. Gen. (Res.) Erez Askal, Head of Israel's National Artificial Intelligence Directorate. "Artificial intelligence constitutes a deep infrastructure that is changing the rules of the game in the economy, in security, in medicine, in education, and in the entire fabric of life. Meeting that moment takes a broad national effort: government, defense, academia, and private industry, working together. We have real advantages no one else can easily match: a track record of solving hard problems with limited resources, deep experience connecting intelligence to the physical world, a commanding position in cyber defense, and a research base that punches far above our weight. Those are what let us compete for real leadership in this era — this is Israel's move from startup nation to full stack nation. We have done this before. We will do it again."

The strategy centers on three pillars: building the institutions and technology to apply AI to national problems; strengthening the human capital, infrastructure, data, and regulatory base AI depends on; and securing Israel's place in the international alliances and standard-setting bodies shaping the AI era.

Concrete commitments include:

• A National Institute for impact-driven AI applications (NIIA), identifying the critical pain points where AI integration can drive the most significant change, and developing solutions for them. The Institute will stand up five "acceleration reactors" — regional labs, each anchored to an existing center of excellence and partnered with a committed business or government lead from the idea stage through national-scale rollout. The reactors will pursue nine systemic goals, from optimal aging and inclusive growth to national security and productivity, with intellectual property remaining with the entrepreneurs who build the solutions, conditioned on broad implementation in Israel.
  
  
• A national computing base of at least 100,000 advanced AI accelerators, a domestic quantum computer, and an advanced chip fabrication facility, led by the private market, with an initial 5,000-accelerator buildout, a domestically built quantum computer, and a push to bring an advanced chip fabrication facility — at 5-nanometer technology or below — to Israel. The plan also directs a feasibility study on hosting AI computing infrastructure in low Earth orbit.
  
  
• New AI-security laboratories, developed with Israel's National Cyber Directorate, extending a cybersecurity sector that drew $3.8 billion in investment in 2024 — 40% of all private U.S. cyber investment that year — into defending AI systems themselves. Seven of the world's ten largest cyber companies now run R&D centers in Israel, and Google's $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cyber company Wiz stands as the largest deal in Israeli high-tech history.

The plan also establishes a National Ethics Council to advise on algorithmic transparency, fairness, and privacy as AI is adopted across public services, and commits Israel to working with international AI developers to address bias in how global models represent Israel and Jewish communities.

The full text of the Israel National AI Action Plan is available here.

About Israel's National Artificial Intelligence Directorate

Israel's National Artificial Intelligence Directorate, operating within the Prime Minister's Office, is the government body charged with formulating and executing the State of Israel's national artificial intelligence strategy. Established pursuant to Government Resolution 4255, "Accelerating Artificial Intelligence in Israel and Establishing Global Leadership," and led by Erez Askal, the Directorate coordinates AI policy and implementation across government ministries, the defense establishment, academia, and private industry. Its national action plan sets out the strategic and practical steps to make Israel a global leader in artificial intelligence and to translate that leadership into measurable improvements in the lives of its citizens. https://go.gov.il/livedai 

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SOURCE Israel's National AI Directorate