Beyond Project Nimbus: How Silicon Valley Fuels Israel’s War Machine

Versions of this article were first published in Arabic on 7iber and English on Tech for Palestine. This edited version is published on UntoldMag with permission. 

Since Google opened its offices in Israel, in 2013, its co-founder Eric Schmidt has consistently been fascinated by the “miracle” that has allowed a small, modern state like “Israel” to lead and compete with major industrial nations in the global tech market. 

In 2017, the year marking the tenth anniversary of Google’s R&D center in Israel, Schmidt boasted, “Israel succeeds because it doesn’t follow the rules.” The following year, at a conference in Tel Aviv, he stated that he finally understands the formula: “It begins with extraordinary talent and excellent education, and it goes through military service, especially in Unit 8200, which gives an enormous advantage.”

Google’s acquisition of the Israeli company Wiz in March of this year may be the latest evidence of its admiration for the “miracle state,” purchasing it for $32 billion—the largest deal in the history of both Google and Israeli companies. The occupation and Western media proudly highlighted that Wiz’s founders, particularly Assaf Rappaport, were soldiers in Unit 8200, the occupation army’s intelligence unit responsible for collecting and analyzing cyber espionage data. 

This is the same unit that developed the “Lavender” program, which the military used to generate massive target lists in Gaza by analyzing AI-driven data on individuals’ proximity to resistance fighters based on communications from Gazans.

Since the occupation state launched its genocidal war on Gaza, other collaborations between major Silicon Valley companies and the Israeli war ministry have resurfaced under public scrutiny. The most notable is the “Project Nimbus” contract signed in 2021 between Google, Amazon and the Israeli government, worth $1.2 billion, through which Google provided cloud computing services to the occupation military —services that were likely used as infrastructure to operate the “Lavender” program.

As usual, when accused of complicity in human rights violations, Big Tech companies resort to what they do best: outright denial of any knowledge of how governments exploit the services and infrastructure they provide. However, examining Google’s acquisition history and investments in Israeli occupation companies reveals an organic, mutually beneficial relationship between the two—one born from the womb of settler-colonial policies even before the genocide, centered on the mutual need for technological skills and solutions that feed into expansionist and monopolistic agendas.

The symbiotic relationship between Silicon Valley companies and Israeli occupation firms can be illustrated through certain statements, such as Eric Schmidt’s emphasis on investing in the “momentum of technical skills coming from Unit 8200” in the Israeli market. Another are the remarks by a founder of the Israeli company Thetaray about the necessity of opening offices in the U.S. as “a condition for success,” commenting on his company’s New York launch in 2021.

While the role of Silicon Valley in paving the way for Israeli companies to enter global markets—helping them move beyond the small market of the occupation state—still requires deeper research, part of this relationship becomes clear when examining Google’s investments and the journey of occupation soldiers who graduated from Unit 8200 into Google’s departments. Many later founded Israeli tech solutions and services that Google adopted, turning these soldiers into heads of departments within the company.

Two Decades of Investment and Acquisition

On the 60th anniversary of the Nakba in 2008, Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin promised to acquire Israeli tech companies. He kept his promise. In 2010, Google began acquiring Israeli startups, purchasing the digital game developer LapPixies for an undisclosed amount, estimated at $15 million. The acquisitions continued, reaching nine, with the most recent being Wiz, an Israeli company that develops cloud cybersecurity services.

It can be said that Google is seeking to expand its share in the cloud computing market and compete with the leading companies Microsoft and Amazon in this field. Thus, most of Google’s acquisitions between 2018 and 2025 focused on Israeli companies offering cloud storage services, such as Velostrata, which Google acquired in 2018, and Alooma that focus on cloud storage management, or Elastifile, which Google acquired in 2019. Google also acquired Israeli companies working in the cybersecurity field, with the first acquisition  being Siemplify in 2022, which was the first cyber security company that Google acquired outside of the United States, followed by Wiz, which offers solutions for automating the detection of cyberattacks on the cloud.

Date of Google acquisition	Company	Year of Establishment	Acquisition Amount	Sector
2010	LabPixies	2006	$15 million	Entertainment gadgets
2013	Waze	2013	$1.3 billion	Navigation and GPS services
2014	SlickLogin	2013	Undisclosed	Sound-based identity verification
2018	Velostrata	2014	Undisclosed	Cloud migration technology
2019	Elastfile	2014	$200 million	Cloud migration technology
2019	Alooma	2013	$150 million	Data integration platform
2021	BreezoMeter	2014	$200 million	Big data to survey location-based air-quality
2022	Siemplify	2015	$500 million	Cloud security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provide
2025	Wiz	2021	$32 billion	Cloud security

Google’s Investments in the Israeli Tech Sector

Google’s involvement in Israel’s emerging tech sector began in 2007 with the establishment of its R&D center in the country. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO at the time, stated in 2018 that most of Google’s AI research was being conducted in Israel. Most recently, Google hired dozens of Israeli engineers to develop semiconductors aimed at reducing AI processing costs compared to those of Nvidia.

Google typically supports Israeli startups by integrating them into its cloud computing incubators. For example, among the 15 startups selected for Google’s “AI-First  Accelerator” program, three were Israeli—part of an $8 billion funding initiative targeting European and Israeli firms.

However, Google’s most significant support comes through funding programs offering over $50 million, either via Google’s investment funds (CapitalG or GV), or Eric Schmidt’s personal venture fund (Investment Endeavor). Google also leads Israeli startups in securing major funding rounds from U.S. investors, often incorporating their solutions and products into Google Cloud’s services.

For example, in 2021, CapitalG led a $210 million financing round for Ocra Security, an Israeli company. Its services for detecting security breaches using AI, were integrated into Google Cloud.

That same year, after entering into a partnership with the Israeli company Cybereason, Google Cloud invested $50 million in the company to provide services for verifying and detecting cyber breaches.

 Cybereason was founded in 2012 in Tel Aviv by Lior Div, who had served in Unit 8200 and received a Medal of Honor, most possibly, for his involvement in developing the malicious worm “Stuxnet“, as he worked in Unit8200 around that time. 

Stuxnet was the malware that Israel and the United States co-developed and implanted in Iranian nuclear reactors in 2005. Drawing on his experience in the occupation army, his company developed an intelligence unit to collect and analyze data, much like the military does. Div stated he wanted to use his military skills “to solve the world’s problems, not just his country’s,” so he established branches of his company in London, Boston, and Tokyo. Today, his company provides services and solutions to the American arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Occupation Soldiers Running Google’s Divisions

These investments and acquisitions represent the fruits of a policy implemented by Netanyahu’s government in 2017 aimed at establishing Israel as a global leader in leveraging cyberspace as an engine for economic growth, social welfare, and national security, according to the book “Israel and the Cyber Threat” authored by former national security advisors in Israel’s war ministry. 

The authors clarify that service in Units 8200 and C4I of the occupation army provides soldiers with practical opportunities to hone their skills in analyzing and testing intelligence data using artificial intelligence, with technical competencies unavailable in other markets – placing Israel’s occupation army second only to the United States in applying cyber capabilities across its extensive military operations.[3]

To illustrate the cloud computing and AI capabilities of these units’ graduates, the book notes that the Israeli military collected approximately 10 terabytes of surveillance data daily during 2021 from Gaza and the West Bank, including satellite videos/images, one billion phone calls, two million photos, and half a million emails.

Schmidt’s open admiration for Unit 8200 has prompted Israeli media and entrepreneurs to boast about their experience in this unit as a competitive advantage. For instance, Yair Weinberger, founder of Alooma, proudly cites his graduation from the elite “Talpiot” program offered by Unit 8200 to top university students, as do Amos Stern, Garry Fatakhov, and Alon Cohen – founders of Siemplify.

Just as these companies’ services become integrated into Google Cloud’s products, many of their founder-veterans join Google as division managers post-acquisition. From heading Unit 8200 to founding Siemplify, Amos Stern now serves as the Director of Google Cloud Security, while his co-founder managed Google Cloud Services  in Israel from 2022-2025.  Similarly, Velostrata founders Issay Ben-Shaul and Adi Degani joined Google for a few years after its 2018 acquisition – the former as the Google (Israel) director, the latter as senior product manager. The pattern holds for Alooma founder Yair Weinberger, who spent three years in Google’s software engineering division post-acquisition.

Moreover, since Israel launched its genocidal war against Gaza and the West Bank, numerous Google, Microsoft and Meta employees have returned to Unit 8200 as reservists to develop AI tools processing massive volumes of Arabic-language conversations by monitoring Palestinians’ communications across phone and internet networks.

Ultimately, Google and its investment funds aren’t alone in Silicon Valley’s pursuit of Unit 8200’s talent.  Between 2019-2023, Israeli startups secured about 32 billion in funding, over half from U.S.investment funds. The ongoing genocide spanning over 20 months has not deterred US merger and acquisition activity targeting Israeli companies. In 2024, the value of exit deals in the Israeli technology sector rose to 13.4 billion—compared to 7.5 billion the previous year—60% of which came from US companies

Alongside Google, reports indicate strengthened ties between Microsoft and Israeli military occupation post-genocide, with Microsoft employees training military personnel in AI applications. This reveals the structural relationship between Silicon Valley and the occupation – merging expansionist settler-colonial policies with the monopolistic profiteering of corporations that dominate users’ digital lives while feeding on mass data collection, storage, and AI-driven analysis of user information.

While  boycotts against these tech companies remain challenging due to limited alternatives, glimmers of hope emerge through spaces and initiatives attempting to resist Big Tech’s hegemony by developing open-source alternatives – though these remain under examination and testing.