Nvidia's Aggressive Expansion in Israel
Nvidia's explosive expansion in Israel: From $7B Mellanox acquisition to 5,000 employees. How Israel became Nvidia's secret weapon in the AI chip race.
"ChipPub" Publication: 20% Discount Offer Link.
In 2019, Mellanox signed a sales agreement with Nvidia, a deal that once made headlines. Israel's startup scene doesn't see $7 billion acquisitions every day. But because both companies operated in relatively "boring" and complex fields, the deal quickly faded from public view. By the time the transaction was completed in late April 2020, Israel was deep in the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mellanox founder and CEO Eyal Waldman made headlines not so much for bringing Nvidia to Israel as for his efforts to bring masks and ventilators to Israel.
Five years later, Waldman's achievements can be compared to those of Dov Frohman, who brought Intel to Israel. For decades, Intel has been Israel's largest private employer. Some of the company's most successful processors were designed here, and Frohman received the Israel Prize for his contributions. Waldman also received the same award, though his recognition was accompanied by ongoing political strife, partly because in the eyes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he belonged to the "wrong" political camp.
Today, globally, Nvidia's revenue, profitability, and market capitalization have long surpassed Intel's, and it seems poised to surpass Intel as Israel's largest private employer as well. But there's an important difference between the two: unlike Intel's local expansion, which received extensive government coordination, tax breaks, and incentive subsidies, Nvidia's growth in Israel has been entirely private, without any subsidies or additional conditions.