Israel To Launch Tender For First Supercomputer

Israel will launch a tender to set up a supercomputer (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Israel will launch a tender to establish its first supercomputer in the country to ensure Israel remains a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This was said by Dror Bin, CEO of the country-backed Israel Innovation Authority, on Wednesday, June 26.

Speaking at the AI conference, Dror Bin said that although AI has become a friend of the Israeli technology sector, AI could turn into a threat without proper action given that AI technology is developing rapidly.

He noted that the government budgeted $250 million for the national AI program consisting of collaboration between the government, industry and academia - 60% of the budget to be executed by 2024 and completed by 2027, possibly with higher funding.

The technology sector accounts for 20% of Israel's economic output and the country is widely regarded as one of the largest technology centers in the world. Bin noted that of the 9,000 startups in Israel, more than 2,200 use AI and Israel - with 73 - having the third largest number of AI-generative companies in the world.

"Our goal is to ensure and secure that Israel maintains its leadership, ranking, and position in the AI race in the world," he said.

Bin said that supercomputers to train large artificial intelligence models are very important in this regard. "When tech companies or researchers want to train big models, they have to buy time in the cloud because there are no local data centers with significant GPU numbers (graphic processing units) to train these models here," he said.

The supercomputer, Bin added, will be available to researchers and companies at a cost lower than market price.