Israel Active

Israel and the UK have created a NIS 9 million fund to provide research grants for joint projects, plus scientific collaboration on the development of transformative technologies. The grants focus on quantum tech, AI for medicine discovery, alternative proteins, and advanced food packaging.

Ace Capital Partners is a new venture capital investment fund focused on defense, aviation, and space startups. Although it will also invest in international companies, ts primary goal is to nurture and strengthen the Israeli ecosystem in aviation and space.

Israel’s gross domestic product grew at an annualized 1.2% rate in the April-June period compared to the previous three months. Over the first half of 2024, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.5%.

New Israeli Energy Ministry regulations have been approved requiring all new detached houses and non-residential buildings of a certain size to install solar panels for electricity generation. The regulations will shortly expand to residential apartment buildings, in which the majority of Israelis live.

Salesforce is to acquire Israel’s Own Company, formerly known as OwnBackup (see previously), for $1.9 billion in cash. Salesforce already owned 10% of Own Company, giving a total valuation of $2.1 billion.

Israeli-founded Safe Superintelligence (see previously) has just raised an incredible $1 billion, just 3 months after launching. Its aim is to build scalable computer power that will eventually result in Artificial Intelligence that, although more powerful than humanity, will be safe for humanity.

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The Netherlands Army is buying $277 million of Spike LR2 missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Earlier this year the Netherlands halted exports to Israel of F-35 fighter aircraft parts after a ruling by a Dutch court that the Dutch government is now appealing.

Israel’s Flytrex (see previously) has just completed 100,000 on-demand deliveries across its locations in suburban North Carolina and Texas, more than any other airborne food delivery service in the United States.

Israel’s Razor Labs (see previously) won three separate categories at the 2024 Mining Technology Excellence Awards. Razor Labs’ AI-driven DataMind AI platform maintains key mining machinery and won in the categories of Innovation, Safety, and Research & Development (R&D).